Contents

Original bridge at Limehouse on the London and Blackwall Railway. It now carries a branch of the DLR. The iron fencing was a feature of the line and was popular with passengers as it gave a quieter ride than the brick walling of the nearby London and Greenwich Railway[2]

It was authorised by an Act of Parliament entitled "An Act for making a Railway from the Minories to Blackwall, with Branches, to be called "The Commercial Railway" dated 28 July 1836 in the reign of William IV. The length of the railway was to be 3.25 miles (5.23 km).[3]

The engineer of the line was intended to be John Rennie, but the project’s City financiers favoured Robert Stephenson, believing that they would also benefit from the knowledge and wisdom of his respected father George. Although, because of the Act, Robert Stephenson had to follow Rennie’s route and use the obscure track gauge of 5 ft 1⁄2 in (1,537 mm),[4][5] he was free to choose his own method of propulsion. Drawing on his experience with the Camden Incline on the London and Birmingham Railway he decided upon cable haulage from stationary steam engines.

The railway was on brick arches as far as the West India Docks, and then on an embankment before entering a shallow cutting near the Blackwall terminus at Brunswick Wharf. The station there had an iron-roofed shed, and offices designed in an Italianate style by William Tite.[6]

The line opened on 6 July 1840, and the company changed its name to the London and Blackwall Railway on completion of an extension to Fenchurch Street, just within the City boundary, in 1841. A line from Stepney (now Limehouse) linking it with the Eastern Counties Railway at Bow was opened in 1849, known as the London and Blackwall Extension Railway (LBER), at which time the line was converted to steam locomotive operation and the track converted to 4 ft 81⁄2 in (1,435 mm) standard gauge. Agreement between the L&BR and the ECR about operation of the services over the LBER could not be reached so the actual junction was not completed. An interchange station called Victoria Park and Bow was opened but the ECR stopped few services there so most services terminated at Bromley and Bow. Services were withdrawn from Victoria Park and Bow on 6 January 1851.

By 1854 relations between the two companies had improved and the junction between the two lines was built and the LBER became part of the initial London Tilbury and Southend (LTSR) route to Fenchurch Street.[7][Note 1]

In 1893 the Fenchurch Street-Stepney line was widened to four tracks, but by the turn of the century traffic to Blackwall and the Isle of Dogs was dropping. Passenger services east of Stepney to North Greenwich and Blackwall were withdrawn on 3 May 1926 as a result of competition from trams. [Note 2][8]

John Betjeman (1906-1984) in his book First and Last Loves (published 1952), wrote of a journey on the L&BR (most likely in the years just before closure) "Those frequent and quite empty trains of the Blackwall Railway ran from a special platform at Fenchurch Street. I remember them. Like stagecoaches they rumbled past East End chimney pots, wharves and shipping stopping at empty black stations till they came to a final halt at Blackwall station...When one emerged there, there was nothing to see beyond it but a cobbled quay and a vast stretch of wind whipped water..."[9]

The minor stations at Leman Street and Shadwell were closed in 1941 as wartime economy measures (as was Burdett Road opened on the Bow extension route in 1871). The junction at Stepney was disconnected in 1951, so that the only remaining access to the Blackwall Branch was from the LBER via the Limehouse Curve, and this was abandoned in 1963 (last train ran 5 November 1962). Access for occasional goods services to Blackwall and North Greenwich via the North London Railway at Poplar continued until 1968, but with the closure of the docks the line was abandoned, leaving only the Fenchurch Street–Stepney section of the original Blackwall branch still in use.[Note 3]

When the Docklands Light Railway opened in 1987, it reused much of the L&BR line between Minories and Westferry Road. Part of the viaduct at North Greenwich for the line to the original terminus between Mudchute DLR station and Island Gardens was used, though some of this section became disused again when the extension to Lewisham was constructed and those stations replaced with ones nearby but below ground.

Minories station on the LBR, circa 1840. The winding drums and Cooke-Wheatstone “needle” telegraph instrument (left foreground) are shown. Note the lever-operated brake to keep the cable taut during unwinding.[2]

As built the line was 3½ miles long, with two bi-directional tracks operated independently of each other. At the opening only one track was complete and the other was not brought into use until one month later. Each track had a double length of hemp rope, as an engine was winding in from one end an equivalent length of rope was being paid out at the other. Fourteen miles of rope, with metal swivels inserted at intervals to resist entanglements, were therefore required. On journeys from the terminus cars were dispatched in two groups: the first group of four cars for the three most distant stations (the terminus stations, as the most important, received two cars per trip) and the second group destined for the three nearest. Each rearmost car was released ("slipped") as the convoy passed through its destination station. When the extension to Fenchurch Street was brought into use the pair of cars for that station was slipped from the rope at Minories as before, but the brakes were not applied. Momentum carried them up the slight slope to the new platforms. "Slipping" and "pinning" (attaching) was controlled from an open platform at whichever end of a car was leading, using levers connected to iron grips beneath the carriage floor.[10]

It was obviously dangerous to use the reverse method to pick up cars on journeys to the terminus, so all the cars were "pinned" to the cable at their respective stations and started simultaneously with the convoy departing from the terminus, the timing co-ordinated by an early example of the Cooke-Wheatstoneelectric telegraph. They arrived at the terminus at intervals and a new train gradually assembled itself, with the pair of cars from the far terminus becoming the lead pair for the return trip. The timetable was very simple: a train every 15 minutes.

Power was provided by eight marine steam engines from Maudslay, Sons and Field, providing for four in use and four in maintenance. The Minories winding house had four at 110 h.p. but the engines at Blackwall were only at 75 h.p. as the overall gradient of the line fell from the west, where it was built on brick arches, to the east.

The line was converted to use steam locomotives in 1848, partly because wear on the rope proved greater than anticipated (a steel-wire replacement had been tried but this twisted and kinked ferociously) and partly in consequence of the intended 1849 extensions. A light roof over the line was provided where it passed near to timber stores or shipping, because of the anticipated fire risk from locomotive sparks. It then became possible to travel directly between intermediate stations, without a detour by way of a terminus.

Bow Road 1st station (1876-1892) when it was closed and replaced by second station to provide interchange with Bow (North London Railway station) and on site of original Bromley and Bow station (opened 1892, closed 1949)

1.
Fenchurch Street railway station
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Fenchurch Street railway station, also known as London Fenchurch Street, is a central London railway terminus in the southeastern corner of the City of London. It takes its name from its proximity to Fenchurch Street, a key thoroughfare in the City, the station and all trains are operated by c2c. The station opened in 1841 to serve the L&BR and was rebuilt in 1854 when the LTSR, the ECR also operated trains out of Fenchurch Street to relieve congestion at its other London terminus at Bishopsgate. The line from the station was electrified in 1961, and controversially closed for seven weeks in 1994, Fenchurch Street is one of the smallest railway termini in London in terms of platforms, but one of the most intensively operated. It has no interchange with the London Underground. The station frontage is on Fenchurch Place, adjacent to Fenchurch Street in the City of London, the station has two entrances, one on Fenchurch Place and another on Coopers Row, near Tower Hill. It has four platforms arranged on two islands elevated on a viaduct, the station has been Grade II listed since 1972 and the conference venue One America Square is built adjacent to it. Following privatisation in 1994, the station was run by Network Rail, since 1996, the station has been served by the National Express Groups c2c who have a franchise to run services until 2029. Fenchurch Street is in the central London Travelcard zone 1 like other stations in the city. The nearest is Tower Hill about 0.2 miles to the southeast, London Buses route 40 passes the station. Services from Fenchurch Street run towards East London and south Essex, including Barking, Upminster, Chafford Hundred Lakeside, Tilbury Town Basildon, Southend Central, the typical off-peak service consists of eight trains per hour, During peak periods services are increased up to 20 tph. Most peak services have 12 cars, although the stations capacity is small compared to other London terminals, it has a high footfall, averaging around 16 million passengers annually. The area around Fenchurch Street is one of the oldest inhabited parts of London, the station was the first to be granted permission by the Corporation of London to be constructed inside the City of London, following several refusals against other railway companies. The original building, designed by William Tite opened on 20 July 1841, serving the London and Blackwall Railway and it had two platforms connected via a stairway to the booking hall. Steam locomotives did not use the station until 1849 because before this time trains were dragged uphill from Blackwall to Minories, the reverse journey eastwards required a manual push from railway staff. William Marshalls railway bookstall established at the station in 1841 was the first to be opened in the City of London, following the opening of the London and Blackwall Extension Railway on 2 April 1849, services operated from Fenchurch Street to Bow & Bromley. Some were extended to Victoria Park & Bow where an interchange existed with the Eastern Counties Railway from Bishopsgate, the station had two heavily used platforms and a double track line from Stepney onwards. Following a reduced income at Blackwall, LBR shareholders voted to align with the ECR and jointly construct the London, Tilbury, services would split at Stratford, one service to Bishopsgate and the other to Fenchurch Street along the reopened line via Bow & Bromley

2.
Minories railway station
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Minories was the western terminus of the London and Blackwall Railway, located on the east side of Minories, a short distance to the north-east of the Tower of London. The line was operated on a basis with a 400 hp pair of stationary steam engines winding a cable 7 miles long to which the trains were attached on the cable car principle. It opened on 6 July 1840 as the City of London terminus for the London, Minories was soon supplemented by a new station several hundred yards west, named Fenchurch Street, designed by William Tite. However, Minories station continued in use as an alternative terminus, the station site was later converted into goods sidings, and the lower levels of the old station were converted into the Mint Street Goods Depot. The depot remained open until April 1951, demolition came shortly after, the location of the station and winching houses are marked by the Minories public house. The western terminus of the Docklands Light Railway opened in August 1987 at Tower Gateway just to the south of the site of Minories station, archived from the original on 2008-12-16

3.
London Docks
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The London Docks were one of several sets of docks in the historic Port of London. They were constructed in Wapping downstream from the City of London between 1799 and 1815, at a cost exceeding £5½ million, traditionally ships had docked at wharves on the River Thames, but by this time, more capacity was needed. They were the closest docks to the City of London, until St Katharine Docks were built two decades later, the London Dock Company was formed in 1800, and work on the Docks began in 1801. In 1864 they were amalgamated with St Katharine Docks, the London Docks occupied a total area of about 30 acres, consisting of Western and Eastern docks linked by the short Tobacco Dock. The Western Dock was connected to the Thames by Hermitage Basin to the south west, the Eastern Dock connected to the Thames via the Shadwell Basin to the east. The principal designers were the architects and engineers Daniel Asher Alexander, the docks specialised in high-value luxury commodities such as ivory, spices, coffee and cocoa as well as wine and wool, for which elegant warehouses and wine cellars were constructed. The system was never connected to the railway network, together with the rest of the enclosed docks, the London Docks were taken over by the Port of London Authority in 1909. The docks were closed to shipping in 1969 and sold to the borough of Tower Hamlets, the western portion of the London Docks was filled in with the intention of turning them into public housing estates. The land was largely derelict when it was acquired in 1981 by the London Docklands Development Corporation. It was subsequently redeveloped with over 1,000 individual properties centred on the old Tobacco Dock, the controversial Fortress Wapping printing works of Rupert Murdochs News International corporation was constructed on the northern half of the infilled Western Dock. Hermitage Basin and Shadwell Basin survive, Wapping Basin is now a sports pitch and some of the Eastern Dock site is open space. A small canal runs across the part of the Western Dock site from Hermitage Basin to Tobacco Dock. Safeguarded wharf Ben Weinreb & Christopher Hibbert

4.
Shadwell railway station
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The station is between Whitechapel to the north and Wapping to the south. It is located near to Shadwell DLR station, the station is in Travelcard Zone 2. The Overground platforms are decorated with panels designed by Sarah McMenemy in 1995. The original station was one of the oldest on the network, first opened by the East London Railway on 10 April 1876, it was first served by the District Railway and Metropolitan Railway on 1 October 1884. It was renamed Shadwell & St. George-in-the-East on 1 July 1900, in 1983, a new ticket hall was built on Cable Street, replacing the original building in Watney Street, which was demolished in May 2010. Access to the platforms was through lifts or stairs. The station was closed between 1995 and 1998 due to work on the East London Lines Thames Tunnel. A new gated northern access fronting Cornwall Street has been added, easing interchange with the Shadwell DLR station, all times below are correct as of the December 2012 timetables. There is a service every 3–5 minutes throughout the day

5.
East London Railway
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The East London Line is part of the London Overground, running north to south through the East End, Docklands and South areas of London. It was previously a line of the London Underground, built in 1869 by the East London Railway Company, which reused the Thames Tunnel intended for horse-drawn carriages, the line became part of the London Underground network in 1933. After nearly 75 years as part of the Underground network, it closed in December 2007 for a refurbishment and expansion. Phase 2, which links the line to the South London Line with a terminus at Clapham Junction, opened on 9 December 2012, the latter two operated what are now the Metropolitan, Circle, District and Hammersmith & City lines of the London Underground. The incorporation of the ELR took place on 26 May 1865 with the aim of providing a link between the LB&SCR, GER and SER lines, the companies reused the Thames Tunnel, built by Marc and Isambard Kingdom Brunel between 1825 and 1843 for horse-drawn carriages. The tunnel had generous headroom and two carriageways separated by arches, despite being used by pedestrians. It connected Wapping on the bank of the Thames with Rotherhithe on the south bank. A triumph of engineering, it was a commercial failure and by the 1860s it had become an unpleasant. The tunnel was the most easterly land connection between the north and south banks of the Thames, close to the docks on both banks of the river and was not far from mainline railways at either end. Converting the tunnel to a railway thus offered a means of providing a cross-Thames rail link without having to go to the expense of boring a new tunnel. On 25 September 1865 the East London Railway Company took ownership of the tunnel at a cost of £800,000, over the next four years the company built a railway through the tunnel to connect with existing railway lines. The companys engineer was Sir John Hawkshaw, who was responsible for the major re-design. 13 March 1871, A spur opened from just south of what is now Surrey Quays station to the South London Lines Old Kent Road station, Passenger services were withdrawn from 1 June 1911 and freight last used the line in 1964, the track was subsequently removed. This alignment was relaid and restored to service by London Overground in late 2012. 10 April 1876, Wapping to Shoreditch, through a tunnel constructed in part along the bottom of an infilled dock. At Shoreditch a connection was made with the Great Eastern Railway to Liverpool Street, intermediate stations were at Shadwell and Whitechapel. 1 April 1880, A spur to New Cross opened,3 March 1884, A spur to the Metropolitan and Metropolitan District Railways opened south of Whitechapel using St Marys Curve. This enabled Metropolitan Railway and Metropolitan District Railway trains to commence services to the East London Railway later that year

6.
Shadwell & St. George's East railway station
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Shadwell was a railway station in the parish of St. George in the East, London, that was opened by the Commercial Railway. It was situated 50 yards to the east of the current Shadwell DLR station on the Docklands Light Railway, the former station was between Cannon Street Road and Stepney, and was 1 mile 5 chains down-line from Fenchurch Street. Shadwell opened in October 1840, three months after the opening of the rest of the Commercial Railway, which rebranded as the LBR in 1841. In 1900, the station was renamed Shadwell & St. Georges East, archived from the original on 2009-09-23

7.
Limehouse station
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Limehouse is a National Rail and connected Docklands Light Railway interchange station in Limehouse in Greater London, England. The station is situated in the East End of London and served by services operated by c2c to and from Fenchurch Street. On the main line, Limehouse is located 1 mile 55 chains down-line from Fenchurch Street, the station was opened by the Commercial Railway in 1840 with the name Stepney. At that time, the Commercial Railway had a station named Limehouse one stop along the line. Stepney was renamed Stepney East in 1923, and in 1926 the other Limehouse station was closed, Stepney East adopted the current Limehouse name in 1987, just before the DLR opened. The station was opened on 6 July 1840 by the Commercial Railway and it was named Stepney, lying between Shadwell and a separate station called Limehouse, located within the Limehouse parish. The service was an operation and it was not until 15 February 1849 that steam operation commenced. On 28 September 1850 an extension was opened from Stepney to Bow, increasing congestion on the approaches to Fenchurch Street saw a third line proposed between Fenchurch Street and a junction at George Street. Discussions about a replacement started in 1853 but it was not until 1 April 1856 that plans were agreed by the LBR board, in the meantime the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway was opened in 1854 operating trains via Stratford railway station to Fenchurch Street. The replacement station was constructed with a set of platforms to serve the Bow route whilst two further platforms were constructed for the Blackwall line and it opened on 30 March 1856. In 1858 LTSR trains started operating on the route from Barking rather than via the congested Stratford route. Twenty people were injured in a collision at the station on 22 November 1861. A Board of Trade report found an error the primary cause of the incident. On 9 April 1871 a train from Bow ran through a signal and hit a Blackwall to Fenchurch Street train with the last coach being knocked off the viaduct and landing on a building below. A further accident in 1879 saw the Board of Trade inspector recommend the re-siting of the box which was duly provided in 1880. An improved building was provided on the down Bow platform in 1894, in 1895 the fourth line towards Fenchurch Street was opened which helped reduce the number of conflicting moves between trains and thus the risk of accidents. The GER further improved the station in 1900, the LTSR became part of the Midland Railway in 1912. On 1 January 1923 the Midland Railway became part of the London Midland & Scottish Railway which took over operation of Stepney station

8.
Regent's Canal
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Regents Canal is a canal across an area just north of central London, England. It provides a link from the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal, just north-west of Paddington Basin in the west, to the Limehouse Basin, the canal is 13.8 kilometres long. As with many Nash projects, the design was passed to one of his assistants, in this case James Morgan. Work began on 14 October 1812, the Camden to Limehouse section, including the 886-metre long Islington tunnel and the Regents Canal Dock, opened four years later on 1 August 1820. Various intermediate basins were also constructed, many other basins such as Wenlock Basin, Kingsland Basin, St. Pancras Stone and Coal Basin, and one in front of the Great Northern Railways Granary were also built, and some of these survive. The City Road Basin, the nearest to the City of London, soon eclipsed the Paddington Basin in the amount of goods carried, principally coal and these were goods that were being shipped locally, in contrast to the canals original purpose of transshipping imports to the Midlands. The opening of the London and Birmingham Railway in 1838 actually increased the tonnage of coal carried by the canal. However, by the twentieth century, with the Midland trade lost to the railways, and more deliveries made by road. There were a number of projects to convert the route of the canal into a railway. The railway company failed, but in 1846 the directors of the canal went about trying to obtain an Act of Parliament to allow them to build a railway along its banks. The scheme was abandoned in the face of opposition, especially from the government who objected to the idea of a railway passing through Regents Park. In 1859, two schemes to convert the canal into a railway were proposed. One, from a company called the Central London Railway and Dock Company, was accepted by the directors, in 1860 the Regents Canal Company proposed a railway track alongside the canal from Kings Cross to Limehouse, but funds could not be raised. Further schemes over the twenty years also came to nothing. In 1883, after years of negotiation, the canal was sold to a company called the Regents Canal. A new purpose was found for the route in 1979. These 400 kV cables now form part of the National Grid, pumped canal water is circulated as a coolant for the high-voltage cables. The canal is used today for pleasure cruising, a regular waterbus service operates between Maida Vale and Camden, running hourly during the summer months

9.
Burdett Road railway station
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Burdett Road is a disused railway station located in Bow Common, east London. It was opened in 1871 by the Great Eastern Railway and closed in 1941, the line at this point was on a viaduct and with little available space at street-level the entrance to the station was incorporated within the structure of the viaduct. The buildings on the two platforms were largely of construction and the platforms both had lengthy awnings affording shelter from the elements. It was 2 miles 21 chains down line from Fenchurch Street, the LBER had wished to extend its trains towards Stratford, but relations with the Eastern Counties Railway were poor and they would not allow a physical junction to be constructed. An exchange platform was provided at a station called Victoria Park and Bow, the relationship between the ECR and LBER finally improved and in 1854 the junction between the two lines was built and the two companies operated services over the Bow line. In 1858 the London Tilbury and Southend Railway opened its Barking extension joining the LBER at Gas Factory Junction, the LTSR and NLR remained outside the Great Eastern as independent rail companies. Trains serving Burdett Road ran every 15 minutes to, what was advertised on the GER handbills and this service was originally run by the NLR but had been taken over by the GER in 1869. In 1876 the GER re-built and opened the first station at Bow Road, the GER service from the NLR station to Fenchurch Street was then withdrawn. From 1 November 1891 LTSR trains started calling at Burdett Road, LTSR services to various destinations including Tilbury, Southend and Shoeburyness could be found on Table 650. The actual relationships between the companies with regard to Burdett Road were quite complex. Between 1866 and 1922, Burdett Road was simultaneously owned by the London and Blackwall, leased to the Great Eastern and it was not a joint line or station, nor were they joint services, because east of Gas Factory Junction the routes and destinations were different. The London and North Eastern Railway took over operation of the station in 1923 following the grouping which was also when the LBER ceased to legally exist, the nearby Mile End station on the London Underground, which opened in 1902, proved more popular than Burdett Road. With the demands placed on the system by the Second World War. Further damage saw the station closed on 21 April 1941, the LBER line is still open, forming part of the busy main line from Fenchurch Street to Shoeburyness. After closure the entrance to the station was used as a factory with wood stored on the old stairwells. The station entrance disappeared in 1984 as part of a road widening scheme, T The LTSR introduced a class of 4-4-2T locomotive in 1880 known as the Tilbury Tanks and number 18 of this class was named ‘Burdett Road’

10.
London, Tilbury & Southend Railway
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The line is also heavily used by leisure travellers, as it and its branches serve a number of seaside resorts, shopping areas and countryside destinations. Additionally the route provides an artery for traffic to and from the port of Tilbury. The route was extended in phases and partnerships were formed with the Midland Railway, the main line runs from Fenchurch Street to Shoeburyness via Basildon over a distance of 39 miles 40 chains. A loop line between Barking and Pitsea provides a route via Grays and Tilbury, and there is a short branch line connecting the two via Ockendon. The line has a speed limit of 75 mph, although the Class 357 electric trains which run on it are capable of a speed of 100 mph. The line forms part of Network Rails strategic route 6 and it is classified as a London and South East commuter line. Passenger services form the Essex Thameside franchise that is operated by train operating company c2c. The construction of the London, Tilbury and Southend Railway line was authorised by Parliament on 17 June 1852. The first section, built by Peto and Grissell, was opened between Forest Gate junction on the Eastern Counties Railway line and Tilbury, via Barking and Grays on 13 April 1854. Services initially ran from Fenchurch Street and Bishopsgate stations over existing lines to Stratford, further extensions opened in late 1854 to Horndon, to Leigh-on-Sea on 1 July 1855 and finally to Southend on 1 March 1856. Under the management of civil engineer Arthur Lewis Stride, the line was extended from Southend to Shoeburyness in 1884, a more direct route from Barking to Pitsea via Upminster was built between 1885 and 1888, completing the current main route. A single-track branch was constructed between Romford and Grays via Upminster in 1892-93, the connection allowed through-running of District Railway trains from the tunnels under central London to provide local services to Upminster from 2 June 1902. The electrified tracks were extended to Barking and that opened on 1 April 1908. Delayed by World War I, the tracks were eventually extended to Upminster and District line services started to. Of course, the Waterloo & City tunnels would have had to be bored out to size for this proposal to succeed. In 1974 a station was opened to serve the new town of Basildon, platforms were re-established and opened at West Ham in 1999 to provide interchange with the extended Jubilee line. The railway was jointly promoted by the Eastern Counties Railway and London and Blackwall Railway and was leased for 21 years to Peto, Brassey. The lease expired in 1875, leaving the LTSR to take over operation itself, the Midland Railway and LTSR jointly constructed the Tottenham and Forest Gate Railway, which enabled through-running of trains between St. Pancras and the Tilbury docks

11.
District Railway
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The Metropolitan District Railway was a passenger railway that served London from 1868 to 1933. Established in 1864 to complete the circle, an underground railway in London. The Metropolitan Railway operated all services until the District introduced its own trains in 1871, the railway was soon extended westwards through Earls Court to Fulham, Richmond, Ealing and Hounslow. After completing the circle and reaching Whitechapel in 1884, it was extended to Upminster in Essex in 1902. To finance electrification at the beginning of the 20th century, American financier Charles Yerkes took it over, Electric propulsion was introduced in 1905, and by the end of the year electric multiple units operated all of the services. On 1 July 1933, the District Railway and the other UERL railways were merged with the Metropolitan Railway, today, former District Railway tracks and stations are used by the London Undergrounds District, Piccadilly and Circle lines. In 1863, the Metropolitan Railway opened the worlds first underground railway, the line was built from Paddington beneath the New Road, connecting the main line railway termini at Paddington, Euston and Kings Cross. Then it followed Farringdon Road to a station at Farringdon Street in Smithfield, the Mets early success prompted a flurry of applications to parliament in 1863 for new railways in London, many competing for similar routes. The House of Lords established a committee that recommended an inner circuit of railway that should abut, if not actually join. Proposals to extend west and then south from Paddington to South Kensington, initially, the District and the Met were closely associated and it was intended that they would soon merge. The District was established as a company to enable funds to be raised independently of the Met. The District also had permission to extend westward from Brompton station and, on 12 April 1869. There were no stations and this service initially operated as a shuttle. By summer 1869 additional tracks had been laid between South Kensington to Brompton and from Kensington to a junction with the line to West Brompton, during the night of 5 July 1870 the District secretly built the disputed Cromwell curve connecting Brompton and Kensington. East of Westminster, the section ran in the newly constructed Victoria Embankment built by the Metropolitan Board of Works along the north bank of the River Thames. The line was opened from Westminster to Blackfriars on 30 May 1870 with stations at Charing Cross, The Temple, the Met initially operated all services, receiving 55 per cent of the gross receipts for a fixed level of service. The District were also charged for any extra trains and the Districts share of the income dropped to about 40 per cent, the Districts level of debt meant that merger was no longer attractive to the Met and its directors resigned from the Districts board. To improve its finances, the District gave the Met notice to terminate the operating agreement, on Saturday 1 July 1871, an opening banquet was attended by the Prime Minister William Gladstone, who was also a shareholder

12.
Limehouse railway station (1840-1926)
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Limehouse was a railway station in Limehouse, London, on the London and Blackwall Railway. It opened in July 1840 and was located at the junction of Bate Street and Three Colt Street and it closed in May 1926, however the line continued to carry freight to the Isle of Dogs until the 1960s. The platforms at Limehouse were demolished soon after closure but the station buildings still survive to this day beneath the viaduct. In the 1980s the viaduct it stood on was reused for the City branch of the Docklands Light Railway, the present-day Westferry DLR station stands 200 yards to the east of its site

13.
Bow Road railway station
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Bow Road is a closed railway station in Bow, east London, that was opened in 1876 on the Bow Curve branch line by the Great Eastern Railway. The station building was situated slightly west of a former North London Railway station called Bow and near the current Bow Road Underground station, Bow Road station was re-sited in 1892 to a site 3 miles 7 chains down-line from Fenchurch Street. The line that the station was located on, called the Bow Curve, was opened by the London and this line served the first station on the site, named Bow and Bromley and located south of Bow Road itself, on a viaduct. In the London-bound direction there were no services at all. The original intention had been to build a junction with the ECR main line between Bishopsgate and Stratford stations and run through-trains from Fenchurch Street. The relationship gradually improved and in 1854 the junction between the two lines was built and the LBER became part of the initial London Tilbury and Southend Railway route to Fenchurch Street. There was a booking office at street-level with stairs leading up to the platform each side of the viaduct. On 3 September 1881 there was a collision at Bow Road when a train ran into the back of a train which had failed at the station. The driver and fireman of the train were killed and 11 passengers were injured. In the inquiry that followed the cause was deemed to be the failure of the signalman to protect the rear of the train by setting signals to danger. The train crew were criticised in that while they had noticed the signals were not at danger, the guard of the first train was also criticised for not having properly protected the rear of the failed train. In the late 1880s a small yard was opened south of Bow Road passenger station. It handled domestic coal, bricks, building materials and general merchandise and was equipped with a five-ton capacity crane, seven-ton cart weighbridge, the yard was closed in 1964 and the Bow Triangle Business Centre now occupies the site. In 1892 Bow Road passenger station was re-sited to the north, after closure, the first station building was used as a coal office, later an auctioneer, then in 1912 was converted to a cinema. The re-sited Bow Road station commenced operations on 4 April 1892, the re-locating of this station then allowed the GER to withdraw a Bow to Fenchurch Street service it was running from the adjoining NLRs Bow station. The walkway between Bow Road and Bow stations was closed in 1917 as an economy measure, a mere 25 years after Bow Road had been re-sited. In the July 1922 edition of Bradshaws Guide, trains serving Bow Road could be found on page 318, on weekdays the first country-bound train from Fenchurch Street ran at 6,20 a. m. with the last at 9,53 p. m. The journey time was around 12 minutes, journey time to Stratford was then a further six minutes

14.
West India Docks railway station
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West India Docks was a railway station in Limehouse, east London, that was opened by the Commercial Railway in 1840. It was situated between Limehouse and Millwall Junction stations,2 miles 35 chains down-line from Fenchurch Street, West India Docks station opened on 6 July 1840. It was closed to service on 3 May 1926, along with the rest of the LBR east of Stepney. The station, including its timber platforms, was demolished in 1931-34 and today no trace of it remains, the station was located at the junction of Garford Street and West India Dock Road, west of the modern-day Aspen Way. The Docklands Light Railway line between Westferry and West India Quays runs through the site, although the viaduct it runs on has been completely rebuilt. West India Docks railway station at Subterranea Britannica

15.
Great Eastern Main Line
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Its numerous branches also connect the main line to such destinations as Braintree, Harwich, Southminster, and Sudbury. The line is heavily used by leisure travellers, as it and its branches serve a number of seaside resorts, shopping areas. The route also provides the main artery for freight traffic to and from Felixstowe and Harwich. The London terminus was moved in July 1840 to Shoreditch in the Metropolitan Borough of Bethnal Green, a further 34 miles of track was added out to Colchester by 1843. The original gauge for the line was 5 ft, but this was converted to 1,435 mm standard gauge in 1844, the section of line between Colchester and Ipswich was built by the Eastern Union Railway to standard gauge and opened to passenger traffic in June 1846. Its sister company, the Ipswich and Bury Railway, built a line to Bury St Edmunds, both companies shared the same office, many directors and key staff, and started operating as a unified company with the EUR name from 1 January 1847. In the late 19th century the main line was expanded with additional tracks being added to cope with more traffic. In 1854 a third track was added between Bow junction and Stratford to help accommodate London, Tilbury and Southend Railway services which at time were operating via Stratford. Until 1860 trains serving the town of Ipswich used a station called Ipswich Stoke Hill which was located south of the Stoke tunnel, the towns current station is located to the north of the tunnel. From November 1872 Bishopsgate became a terminus to relieve the main high level Bishopsgate station while the GER was building its new permanent terminus at Liverpool Street. The latter opened in stages from February 1874, beginning with the first four platforms, at that time the original 1840 Bishopsgate station closed to passengers and was converted into a goods yard. By the 1870s suburbia in the Forest Gate area was developing quickly and these were followed by trains from Fenchurch Street in 1877. By 1882 these services had been extended and were terminating at Ilford, Romford or Brentwood, in 1877 a fourth track was added between Bow junction and Stratford and two goods-only tracks were added between Stratford and Maryland Point. The four-track Bow junction to Stratford section was extended back to James Street junction in 1884 and it was also in this year that two extra tracks were added between Bethnal Green and Liverpool Street which were for the use of West Anglia Main Line services. These tracks were built through the basement warehousing associated with Bishopsgate station located above, the line was quadrupled to Ilford in 1895 and in 1899 out to Seven Kings. In 1902 the quadruple track was extended from Seven Kings to Romford, but it wasn’t until 1913 that four-tracking out to Shenfield was suggested, in 1903 the Fairlop Loop opened and a number of services that had previously terminated at Ilford were extended onto it. These services generally looped round and back to the GEML at Stratford, the GER was grouped in 1923 into the London and North Eastern Railway. In 1931/32 the LNER quadrupled the tracks to Shenfield which became the terminus for inner-suburban operation, the new arrangement also facilitated cross-platform interchange with the Central line at Stratford, with services commencing in 1946

16.
Liverpool Street station
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The station opened in 1874 as a replacement for Bishopsgate station as the Great Eastern Railways main London terminus. By 1895 it had the largest number of platforms on any railway station in London. During the First World War, an air raid on the station in 1917 led to 162 deaths, in the build-up to the Second World War, the station served as the entry point for thousands of child refugees arriving in London as part of the Kindertransport rescue mission. Liverpool Street was built as a station with provision for the Underground. A tube station opened in 1875 for the Metropolitan Railway, and the station today is served by the Central, Circle, Hammersmith & City and Metropolitan lines, Liverpool Street is the third-busiest railway station in the United Kingdom after Waterloo and Victoria, both also in London. It is managed directly by Network Rail, a few daily express trains to Harwich International provide a connection with the Dutchflyer ferry to Hook of Holland. Stansted Express trains provide a link to Stansted Airport and Southend Victoria-bound services stop at Southend Airport, most passenger services on the Great Eastern Main Line are operated by Greater Anglia. Since 2015, the Shenfield metro service has been controlled by TfL Rail, a small number of late-evening and weekend services operated by c2c run via Barking. The station is split into two halves, the west side for the Lea Valley Lines services and the east side for services via Stratford. The typical off-peak weekday service pattern from Liverpool Street is, Liverpool Street station was built as the new London terminus of the Great Eastern Railway which served Norwich, the GER had been formed from the merger of several railway companies, inheriting Bishopsgate as its London terminus. Consequently, the GER planned a more central station, the station was planned to be around 630 by 200 ft in area, with its main façade onto Liverpool Street and an additional entrance on Bishopsgate-Street. The line and station construction were authorised by the Great Eastern Railway Act 1864, the station was built on a 10 acres site previously occupied by the Bethlem Royal Hospital, adjacent to Broad Street station, west of Bishopsgate and facing onto Liverpool Street to the south. The development land was purchased, displacing around 3,000 residents of the parish of St Botolph-without-Bishopsgate. To manage the disruption caused by rehousing, the company was required by the 1864 Act to run daily low-cost workmens trains from the station. The station was designed by GER engineer Edward Wilson and built by Lucas Brothers, the overall design was approximately Gothic, built using stock bricks and bath stone dressings. The building incorporated booking offices as well as the offices of the GER, including chairmans, board, committee, secretary. The station was built with a connection to the sub-surface Metropolitan Railway, with the platform sunk below ground level, the Metropolitan Railway used the station as a terminus from 1 February 1875 until 11 July 1875, their own underground station opened on 12 July 1875. Local trains began serving the partially completed station from 2 October 1874, the original City terminus at Bishopsgate closed to passengers and was converted for use as a goods station from 1881

17.
Millwall Junction railway station
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Millwall Junction was a railway station in Poplar, east London, on the London and Blackwall Railway. Despite the name, it was not in Millwall, but rather it marked where the LBR southern branch to Millwall and North Greenwich, which served the West India Docks, branched off the main line. It was between West India Docks station and Poplar station,2 miles 64 chains down-line from Fenchurch Street, with South Dock the next stop on the Millwall branch. The station was rebuilt in 1888 and remained open until 3 May 1926 when all services on the LBR east of Stepney station were withdrawn. Goods services ran through until the 1960s, the station buildings were demolished in 1965 and the platforms removed in 1985 to make way for the Docklands Light Railway. The DLRs junction east of Poplar now occupies the station site

18.
Norwich railway station
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Norwich railway station is the eastern terminus of the Great Eastern Main Line in the East of England, serving the city of Norwich, Norfolk. It is 114 miles 77 chains down the line from the western terminus. It is also the terminus of several lines, the Breckland Line to Cambridge, the Bittern Line to Cromer and Sheringham. East Midlands Trains also operates a service to Liverpool Lime Street, the station is currently managed by Abellio Greater Anglia, which also operates the majority of the trains that serve the station. The original station was opened by the Yarmouth & Norwich Railway which was the earliest railway in Norfolk. Its Act of Parliament of 18 June 1842 authorised the issue of £200,000 worth of shares to build a line between the two towns, via Reedham and the Yare valley, the chairman was George Stephenson and the chief engineer was his son, Robert Stephenson. 17 days after the Y&NR started running train services Parliament gave the Royal Assent to the Norwich & Brandon Railway. This was part of a plan to link the Norwich and Yarmouth with London by linking up with the Eastern Counties Railway line being built from Newport, in Essex, to Brandon, work started quickly during 1844 and went on into 1845. On 30 June 1845 a Bill authorising the amalgamation of the Y&NR with the N&BR came into effect, the N&BR line arrived at the station on 15 December 1845 and this offered a route to Shoreditch in London via Cambridge and Bishops Stortford. The Eastern Union Railway was building a line towards Norwich and this led to rivalry between the EUR and the Eastern Counties Railway. The ECR trumped the EUR by taking over the Norfolk Railway, the following year the Eastern Union Railway started services to Norwich Victoria. The opening of Norwich Victoria on 12 December 1849 led to the ECR naming its station Norwich Thorpe, on 27 Aug 1851 Eastern Union Railways services from Ipswich started serving the better placed station of Thorpe. Actually, Norwich Thorpe and Norwich Victoria became GER stations on 1 July 1862 when the GER took over the ECR, a decade after the GER was formed the latter promoted a new line from Norwich to Cromer. The line was opened on 20 October 1874 and a new station was built, the new station, Whitlingham, now stood between Norwich Thorpe and Brundall on the Yarmouth line. With traffic growing it was apparent a new station was required, the old terminus then became part of expanded goods facilities. The new station was built by Messrs Youngs and Son, of Norwich, from designs by Messrs J Wilson and W. N. Ashbee and it had a circulating area with a high ceiling and the roof was supported by ironwork supplied by contractor Barnard Bishop and Barnard. The roof extended partly down the platforms which were covered by canopies for part of their length. There were initially five platforms and engine release roads between platforms 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 and these allowed the locomotive to be detached from the train without the need for a shunting locomotive having to shunt the carriages out of the station

19.
Port of London Authority
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The Port of London Authority is a self-funding public trust established by The Port of London Act 1908 to govern the Port of London. Its responsibility extends over the Tideway of the River Thames and its continuation and it maintains and supervises navigation, and protects the rivers environment. The PLA originally operated all enclosed dock systems on the river, but these have long closed to commercial traffic, with the exception of Port of Tilbury. The PLAs responsibility extends from a point marked by an obelisk just downstream of Teddington Lock to the end of the Kent/Essex strait of the North Sea a total of about 95 miles, the PLA does not cover the Medway or the Swale. From the City of London, via the Thames Conservancy, the PLA has inherited ownership of the bed of the river and foreshore from Teddington to the Yantlet Line. During much of the 20th century the PLA owned and operated many of the docks and wharfs in the Port, but they have all now been either closed or privatised. Today the PLA acts mainly as an authority for the tidal stretch of the River Thames, ensuring safe navigation. Comparable responsibilities for the river including, and upstream of, Teddington Lock fall to the Environment Agency, the PLA is responsible for the operation of Richmond Lock, but it is not responsible for the Thames Barrier which is managed by the Environment Agency in its flood management role. The PLA originally had its headquarters on Tower Hill in the City of London, the PLA retains a presence in the City in offices at Bakers Hall on Harp Lane, where the Chairman, Chief Executive and Secretary of the PLA are based. Both Port Control centres operate the system for coordinating traffic within the PLAs area. The system involves 16 radar stations along the river and out in the estuary, the PLA owns Denton Wharf and Jetty in Gravesend, which is the main base for its fleet of more than 40 vessels. It also provides lift-out and maintenance services for users of the Thames. The PLA owns Barrier Gardens Pier and Unity House, near its centre at the Thames Barrier. There are also two stations at Harwich and Ramsgate, beyond the estuary and the Port of London. From these stations pilots are sent out and return from large vessels entering and leaving the Port, the PLA employs about 360 people. The PLA owns three piers and jetties on the River Thames and these are available for other river users as well as the PLAs own vessels. Five new patrol vessels were built by Alnmaritec in Northumberland and delivered in 2009, the Lord Mayor of London, the chief dignitary of the City of London, is ex officio the Admiral of the Port of London. The PLA uses a blue ensign with a gold heraldic sealion on all its vessels and it also has a house flag and pennants for the use of the Chairman and the Vice Chairman of its Board

20.
West India Docks
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The West India Docks are a series of three docks on the Isle of Dogs in London, England the first of which opened in 1802. The docks closed to traffic in 1980 and the Canary Wharf development was built on the site. Robert Milligan was largely responsible for the construction of the West India Docks, Milligan was a wealthy West Indies merchant and shipowner, who returned to London having previously managed his familys Jamaica sugar plantations. The group planned and built West India Docks, lobbying Parliament to allow the creation of a West India Dock Company, Milligan served as both Deputy Chairman and Chairman of the West India Dock Company. The Docks were authorised by the West India Dock Act 1799 - the first parliamentary Act for dock building, the Docks were constructed in two phases. The two northern docks were constructed between 1800 and 1802 for the West India Dock Company to a design by leading civil engineer William Jessop, and were the first commercial wet docks in London. British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger and Lord Chancellor Lord Loughborough were assisted in the foundation ceremony on 12 July 1800 by Milligan. The docks were opened on 27 August 1802 when the newly built. It was followed by Echo, a ship laden with her cargo from the West Indies, in 1909 the West India Docks were taken over by the Port of London Authority, along with the other enclosed docks from St Katharines to Tilbury. The original docks consisted of an Import Dock of 30 acres of water, later named North Dock, between them, the docks had a combined capability to berth over 600 vessels. Locks and basins at either end of the Docks connected them to the river Thames and these were known as Blackwall Basin and Limehouse Basin, not to be confused with the Regents Canal Dock also known as Limehouse Basin. To avoid congestion, ships entered from the Blackwall end, lighters entered from the Limehouse end to the west, a dry dock for ship repairs was constructed connecting to Blackwall Basin. Subsequently the North London Railways Poplar Dock was also connected to Blackwall Basin, around the Import Dock a continuous line of five-storey warehouses was constructed, designed by architect George Gwilt and his son, also named George. The Export Dock needed fewer buildings as cargo was loaded upon arrival, to protect against theft, the whole complex was surrounded by a brick wall 20 ft high. The three docks were initially separate, with the two northern docks interconnected only via the basin at each end, and South Dock connected via a series of three basins at the eastern end and this allowed improved road and rail access from the north and west. South Dock was also connected to the end of Millwall Dock, its enlarged eastern lock becoming the only entrance from the Thames to the whole West India. From 1960 to 1980, trade in the docks declined to almost nothing, first, the development of the shipping container made this type of relatively small dock inefficient, and the dock-owners were slow to embrace change. Second, the exports which had maintained the trade through the docks dwindled and moved away from the local area

21.
Poplar Dock
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Poplar Dock is a small dock in east London. It connects to the Blackwall Basin of the West India Docks and, the dock was built by the East & West India Docks and Birmingham Junction Railway Company and connected to the companys goods yard at Chalk Farm. It was alone among the docks to remain outside the control of the Port of London Authority in 1909, and remained in the ownership of British Rail until closure in 1981. Because of its lack of a connection to the river. In its early years the dock was used mainly to coal from the Northeast of England. Much of the dock survives today as a mooring connected to Blackwall Basin, Poplar Dock is now known as Poplar Dock Marina. It was opened by Her Majesty the Queen in 1999, the marina is overlooked to the south by Landons Close and to the west by Boardwalk Place. Blackwall Yard, a little to the east, which also had a small railway dock known as Poplar Dock

22.
Great Western Railway
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The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England, the Midlands, and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835, Goods wagons were painted red but this was later changed to mid-grey. Great Western trains included long-distance express services such as the Flying Dutchman, the Cornish Riviera Express and it also operated many suburban and rural services, some operated by steam railmotors or autotrains. The company pioneered the use of larger, more economic goods wagons than were usual in Britain and it operated a network of road motor routes, was a part of the Railway Air Services, and owned ships, docks and hotels. The Great Western Railway originated from the desire of Bristol merchants to maintain their city as the port of the country. The company was founded at a meeting in Bristol in 1833 and was incorporated by Act of Parliament in 1835. Isambard Kingdom Brunel, then aged twenty-nine, was appointed engineer and this was by far Brunels largest contract to date. Firstly, he chose to use a gauge of 7 ft to allow for the possibility of large wheels outside the bodies of the rolling stock which could give smoother running at high speeds. Secondly, he selected a route, north of the Marlborough Downs and this meant the line was not direct from to London to Bristol. From Reading heading west, the line would curve in a northerly sweep back to Bath, the first 22.5 miles of line, from Paddington station in London to Maidenhead Bridge station, opened on 4 June 1838. When Maidenhead Railway Bridge was ready the line was extended to Twyford on 1 July 1839, the cutting was the scene of a railway disaster two years later when a goods train ran into a landslip, ten passengers who were travelling in open trucks were killed. This accident prompted Parliament to pass the 1844 Railway Regulation Act requiring railway companies to provide carriages for passengers. The next section, from Reading to Steventon crossed the Thames twice, a 7. 25-mile extension took the line to Faringdon Road on 20 July 1840. Meanwhile, work had started at the Bristol end of the line, on 17 December 1840, the line from London reached a temporary terminus at Wootton Bassett Road west of Swindon and 80.25 miles from Paddington. The section from Wootton Bassett Road to Chippenham was opened on 31 May 1841, as was Swindon Junction station where the Cheltenham and Great Western Union Railway to Cirencester connected. That was an independent line worked by the GWR, as was the Bristol and Exeter Railway, in 1851, the GWR purchased the Kennet and Avon Canal, which was a competing carrier between London, Reading, Bath and Bristol. The GWR was closely involved with the C&GWUR and the B&ER, the South Wales Railway had opened between Chepstow and Swansea in 1850 and became connected to the GWR by Brunels Chepstow Bridge in 1852. It was completed to Neyland in 1856, where a port was established

23.
Great Northern Railway (Great Britain)
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The Great Northern Railway was a British railway company established by the Great Northern Railway Act of 1846. On 1 January 1923 the company lost its identity, as a constituent of the newly formed London, the main line became part of the East Coast Main Line. In the summer of 1835, the engineer, Joseph Gibbs projected a line which was to run from Whitechapel, via Dunmow, Cambridge, Sleaford and this was submitted to a committee in London to which the title Great Northern Railway Company was provisionally given. However, the scheme came to nothing, loop from Peterborough to Bawtry via Boston and Lincoln. The London and York bill finally received Royal assent on 26 June 1846 as The Great Northern Railway Act,1846, the Act granted powers to construct the main line and loop lines. The Great Northern began construction first on the Peterborough to Gainsborough section of the loop line, as the ease of construction over the flat fens promised an earlier return on investment. The first section of line was opened on 1 March 1848 and was the Louth to Grimsby section of the East Lincolnshire Railway, which although nominally independent, was leased to the GNR from the start. The first section of GNR proper to be opened was the 3 miles from Doncaster to Askern Junction, the GNR and MS&LR lines allowing through running from Lincoln to Doncaster via Retford opened on 4 September 1849. The immediate targets in the north were Leeds and York and this new line was opened in June 1850, at which time the agreement was formalised and in return the GNR agreed not to proceed with its own main line from Askern to York via Selby. During 1846 to 1849 George Turnbull was the resident engineer under William Cubitt for the London District of the Great Northern Railway, in December 1848 Turnbull was busy with the plans for Kings Cross station and passing the line under the Regents Canal. On 2 February 1849 the last capstone on Holloway Bridge was set in place, on 27 March the first brick for the South Mimms tunnel was laid by Edward Purser. The first brick of the East Barnet tunnel was laid on 23 April, there was much trouble with the cement in the Tottenham and South Mimms tunnels, Turnbull stopped the use of this cement — blue lias was substituted. Another of the engineers working under Cubitt was James Moore, who went on to design the first commercial railway in Australia for the Melbourne. On 7 August 1850, the line opened from a temporary station at Maiden Lane, London. The remaining section between Peterborough and Retford opened in 1852, as did the new London terminus at Kings Cross, Doncaster locomotive works opened in 1853, replacing temporary facilities at Boston. On 1 August 1854, the Leeds, Bradford and Halifax Junction Railway opened between Leeds and Bowling Junction near Bradford, because it had running powers over this line and a section of the LYR, the GNR obtained access to Bradford and Halifax. In 1857, the West Yorkshire Railway opened their line from Wakefield to Leeds via Ardsley. The GNR had running powers over this line and immediately began using it instead of the Midland line via Methley, also in 1857, the previously mentioned LB&HJR opened a direct line from Ardsley to Laisterdyke, near Bradford

24.
Poplar railway station
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It was closed in 1926, at which time it was owned by the London and North Eastern Railway. The station was opened on 6 July 1840 on the west side of Brunswick Street, to the north of the Blackwall Yard shipyard and it remained open until 4 May 1926, when all passenger services on the line east of Stepney ceased. During its life there was another station named Poplar on the North London Railway, the NLR station was referred to as Poplar to avoid confusion with the LBR station. Poplar closed in 1944 and its site is now occupied by All Saints DLR station, no trace of the LBRs Poplar station remains today and the site is occupied by Aspen Way and is adjacent to Blackwall DLR station. The only remaining building of Poplar stations era is an accumulator tower for the adjacent Poplar Dock. The stations current namesake, Poplar DLR station, lies to the west of the original LBR station site, Poplar railway station on Subterranea Britannica Map of Poplar & Blackwall from 1885

25.
South Dock railway station
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South Dock was a railway station on the Isle of Dogs in east London. The station was on the side of the South Dock of the West India Docks. It had a platform as it was the only passing loop on the branch. The station buildings were of timber with a slate roof, station was staffed entirely by dock employees, company issued its own tickets. The station was renamed South West India Dock in July 1881 and it stood in a relatively isolated location in the docks area, some distance from the nearest road. Passenger usage of the station was light and services to it. Extensive rebuilding in the 1980s Docklands redevelopment has left no trace of the station or the line, today the site is occupied by a BT telecommunications building

26.
East India Docks
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The East India Docks were a group of docks in Blackwall, east London, north-east of the Isle of Dogs. Today only the basin and listed perimeter wall remain visible. Following the successful creation of the West India Docks which opened in 1802, joseph Cotton was chairman of the Dock Company from 1803. The docks, designed by engineer Ralph Walker, were located to the north-east of the West India Docks and they were based on the existing Brunswick Dock, which had been used for fitting out and repairing ships as part of Blackwall Yard. The Brunswick Dock, which had originally been connected directly to the Thames to the south, to the north the company built a larger 18-acre Import Dock. Both were connected to the Thames via an entrance basin. The company rapidly became profitable through its trade in such as tea, spices, indigo, silk. The tea trade alone was worth £30m a year, the docks spawned further local industry, with spice merchants and pepper grinders setting up around the dock to process goods. In 1838 the East and West India companies merged, in 1886, in the last act of a ruinous game of leapfrog with the London & St Katharine Dock Company, they built the Tilbury Docks. In 1909 the docks were taken over by the Port of London Authority, while much smaller than the West India Docks or the later Royal Docks, the East India Docks could still handle East Indiamen of 1000 tons and up to 250 ships at one time. However the advent of power and larger ships reduced the importance of this dock. The docks played a key role in the Second World War as a location for constructing the floating Mulberry harbours used by the Allies to support the D-Day landings in France. After the war, during all the docks were badly damaged. Brunswick Wharf Power Station was built on the site of the Export Dock in stages between 1946 and 1956 and this was a monumental brick structure with fluted concrete chimneys after the style of Gilbert Scotts designs for Battersea and Bankside. It ceased generation in 1984 and was demolished in the late 1980s, in 1967 the docks were the first of the London docks to close. Today the docks have been filled in. Only the entrance remains, as a wildlife refuge and an attractive local amenity. The area is residential with several major developments either complete or under construction around it

27.
Millwall Docks
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Millwall Dock is a dock at Millwall, London, England, located south of Canary Wharf on the Isle of Dogs. The Millwall Dock was constructed by John Aird & Co. to a design by Sir John Fowler, the dock is L-shaped, with an Outer Dock running east-west, and an Inner Dock running north from the eastern end. It originally contained around 36 acres of water and had a 200-acre estate, the western end of the Outer Dock was originally connected to the Thames at Millwall by an 80 ft wide channel. The spoil from the formed the area of wasteland known as the Mudchute. A graving dock for repairs was constructed at the SE corner of the Outer Dock. The dock was used mainly for timber and grain, a trade which eventually moved down river to the Port of Tilbury with the construction of a grain terminal in the 1960s. A McDougalls flour mill, the Wheatsheaf Mill, stood on the side of the Outer Dock. Nearby Sir John McDougall Gardens is named one of the McDougall brothers, John McDougall. Millwall Dock lies near the centre of the Isle of Dogs, a large site on the north side of Outer Dock is occupied by the West Ferry Printing Works, the largest newspaper print works in Western Europe, built 1984–6. Millwall Dock is a business district that includes office towers housing small to medium-sized technology, publishing. Millwall Dock is also an area where several housing developments and impressive apartment towers have been developed, the Clippers Quay housing estate is located around the old dry dock, while the Mill Quay housing development is located on the site of the old flour mill. There is a marked contrast between the newly established living and working areas and the older neighbouring developments in the area, Docklands Sailing and Watersports Centre is located at the far West end of the dock where the dock previously connected to the Thames. It was set up in 1989 by the London Docklands Development Corporation, the dock was a location for boat stunts in the 1999 James Bond film The World Is Not Enough. There are three Docklands Light Railway stations serving the Millwall Dock, Mudchute, Crossharbour and South Quay, Survey Survey of London, volumes 43 and 44, Poplar, Blackwall and Isle of Dogs, pp. 353-356. Dockland, An illustrated historical survey of life and work in east London, NELP/GLC,1983, ISBN 0-7168-1611-3 Docklands Light Railway Mill Quay Residents Association

28.
Blackwall railway station
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Blackwall was a railway station in Blackwall, London, that served as the eastern terminus of the Commercial Railway. It was located on the side of the East India Docks. The station was designed by architect William Tite in an ornate Italinaite style and it opened on 6 July 1840 with services connecting with a ferry service to Gravesend, Kent. In March 1926 the London and North Eastern Railway and Port of London Authority announced passenger services would be withdrawn on 30 June 1926, however, with the start of the national general strike services were suspended early on 3 May 1926, and never resumed. John Betjeman in his book First and Last Loves, wrote of a journey on the L&BR Those frequent and quite empty trains of the Blackwall Railway ran from a special platform at Fenchurch Street. The station was demolished in 1946 to make way for Blackwall power station, today no trace of the two-storey station remains, and the docks have been filled in. Its approximate location is now occupied by houses on Jamestown Way, map of Poplar & Blackwall from 1885 Blackwall on Disused-Stations. org

29.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area

30.
Minories
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Minories is the name of a former civil parish, also known as Minories Holy Trinity, and a street in the City of London, close to the Tower of London. Minories name is derived from the former Abbey of the Minoresses of St Mary of the Order of St Clare, a minoress was a nun in the Second Order of the Order of Friars Minor known as Franciscans. A small side-road off Minories is named St. Clare Street, the name can be found in other English towns including Birmingham, Colchester, Newcastle upon Tyne and Stratford-upon-Avon. In September 2013, a well preserved Roman statue of an eagle, the statue is considered to be one of the best examples of Romano-British sculpture in existence. Minories was in the ancient parish of St Botolph without Aldgate until 1557, the area was a papal peculiar outside the jurisdiction of the English bishops. The abbey was dissolved in 1539 when the property passed to the Crown, the chapel of the former abbey became the Church of Holy Trinity, Minories, and other buildings were used as an armoury and later as a workhouse. In 1686, the became part of the Liberties of the Tower of London. The Minories area historically hosted a large Jewish community, Minories Holy Trinity was abolished as a civil parish in 1895 and absorbed into the parish of Whitechapel. The street gave its name to Minories railway station, built in 1840 as a part of the London, the site is now occupied by the Docklands Light Railway station Tower Gateway, which opened in 1989 as the systems western terminus. The DLR was extended westward in 1991 to Bank, leaving Tower Gateway as an alternative terminus. The modern street named Minories runs north-south with traffic flowing both-ways from Aldgate to Tower Hill, Aldgate Underground station is at the northern end of Minories, on Aldgate High Street. Old and New London, Volume 2

31.
Blackwall, London
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While mostly residential, Blackwall Yard here provides moorings for vessels and significant roads cover the short riverside outside bend which defines the area. The small district by Blackwall Stairs was known as Blackwall by at least the 14th century and this presumably derives from the colour of the river wall, constructed in the Middle Ages. The area lay in a loop of the river next to Poplars East Marsh. The area has never had its own Anglican church so for such as road maintenance organised by a vestry. Indeed, the whole Isle of Dogs was until the late 20th century referred to as being Poplar or the Poplar District. The Isle excludes the symmetrical part and comprises, the ancient hamlet of Poplar itself, the old shipbuilding centre of Blackwall, a major subject is public housing, which includes the famous Lansbury Estate, built in association with the 1951 Festival of Britain. Contrary to expectations, the River Thames landmark named Blackwall Point is not located in Blackwall district but on the tip of Greenwich Peninsula. It is so named after the Blackwall Reach of the Thames, Blackwall gives its name to the partially underlying Blackwall Tunnel, which passes south under the adjacent River Thames to North Greenwich. Blackwall was a significant ocean-going port in past centuries and was connected with important voyages, on 7 June 1576, financed by the Muscovy Company, Martin Frobisher set sail from Blackwall, seeking the North West Passage. For over four hundred years, until 1987, Blackwall was a centre of shipbuilding and repairing and this activity principally included Blackwall Yard, the Thames Ironworks and Shipbuilding Company at Leamouth, Canning Town, and the Orchard House Yard. Blackwall Yard built the first Blackwall Frigates, little industry remains in Blackwall today. One of the last survivors, the Pura Foods edible oil works, lying in a loop of Bow Creek at Orchard Place and this site had once been occupied by the Thames Plate Glass Works. For many years the sugar firm Fowlers, a significant maker of treacle, was in Blackwall, the former London and Blackwall Railway ran from Minories to Blackwall by way of Stepney, a distance of three and half miles. This was authorised in 1836 as The Commercial Railway, running close to Commercial Road in the East End of London, much of the current Docklands Light Railway track around Limehouse and Blackwall is on the London and Blackwall Railways old viaducts. A relatively wide physical divide for a peripheral-to-Central London district separates Poplar, London from Blackwall, the twin north-south tunnels forming the Blackwall Tunnel commence 250 metres north of this road, by the local borough Town Hall, within the edge of Poplar. The fictitious Blackwall Fire Station featured in the London Weekend Television series Londons Burning, Blackwall and District Rowing Club was formed in 1845 and is one of the oldest rowing clubs in the United Kingdom. A Tideway rowing club, historically it was Poplar, Blackwall and it competes in leading national races, runs Poplar regatta, and is the end of the Great River Race. Its members hold old records in the Doggetts Coat and Badge race for single sculls on the Thames and its most notable member is Olympic gold and silver medallist, and double-World Champion Mark Hunter

32.
Stepney
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Stepney is a district of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in Londons East End that grew out of a medieval village around St Dunstans church and the 15th century ribbon development of Mile End Road. The area built up rapidly in the 19th century, mainly to immigrant workers and displaced London poor. Some Georgian architecture and Victorian era terraced housing survive in patches, for example Arbour Square, the side of Stepney Green. Stepney is roughly bounded by Commercial Road, part of the A13, in the south, Mile End Road, part of the A11, in the north, the western boundary with Whitechapel is rather ambiguous. It is administered by the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, the first community developed around the church of St Dunstans, which was founded in 923. Its name was recorded around 1000 AD as Stybbanhyð, Stybbas landing-place, there were over 100 serfs, split between villeins who ploughed the land, and cottars who assisted the villeins in return for a hut or cottage. Bishop William held this land in demesne, in the manor of Stepney, on the day on which King Edward was alive, in the same vill Ranulph Flambard holds 3½ hides of the bishop. The Manor of Stepney was held by the Bishop of London in compensation for his duties in maintaining and garrisoning the Tower of London, further ecclesiastic holdings came about from the need to enclose the marshes and create flood defences along the Thames. Edward VI passed the land to the Wentworth family, and thence to their descendants, the ecclesiastic system of copyhold, whereby land was leased to tenants for terms as short as seven years, prevailed throughout the manor. This severely limited scope for improvement of the land and new building until the estate was broken up in the 19th century, in the early 20th century, Stepney was one of the most Jewish neighbourhoods in England, it was eventually replaced by Stamford Hill. The Siege of Sidney Street took place in Stepney in 1911, the parish included the hamlets of Mile End Old Town, Mile End New Town, and Ratcliff. At its early extent it additionally included Whitechapel, Wapping, Stratford Bow, Shadwell, Spitalfields, Bethnal Green, Limehouse and Poplar. Over time the parish was broken up with these settlements forming new independent parishes, leaving a residual parish of 830 acres comprising Mile End Old Town, Mile End New Town and Ratcliff. Stepney is an area in the Anglican Diocese of London, which covers the London boroughs of Hackney, Islington and Tower Hamlets. The Metropolitan Borough of Stepney was formed in 1900, then dissolved in 1965 when it was absorbed into the newly created London Borough of Tower Hamlets which currently administers the area, Stepney is located 3.6 miles east north-east of Charing Cross. It is roughly bounded by Commercial Road, part of the A13, in the south, Mile End Road, part of the A11, in the north, the Western Boundary with Whitechapel is rather ambiguous. The area still contains a range of immigrants, particularly young Asian families, as well as elderly East Enders, some students, based on 2001 census, Bangladeshis were the largest ethnic group, then the White British. In 2011, Stepney was 47% Bengali, the highest in Southern England, a brewery was founded in 1738 that developed into Charrington and Co. in 1897

33.
Isle of Dogs
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The Isle of Dogs is an area in the East End of London that is bounded on three sides by one of the largest meanders in the River Thames. The soil is alluvial and silty in nature, underlaid by clay or mud, the first known written mention of the Isle of Dogs is in the ‘Letters & Papers of Henry VIII’. Some say it is a corruption of the Isle of Ducks, Jonson was imprisoned for a year, Nashe avoided arrest by fleeing the area. Samuel Pepys referred to the unlucky Isle of Dogs, the presence of Dutch engineers reclaiming the land from a disastrous flood. The presence of gibbets on the foreshore facing Greenwich, a yeoman farmer called Brache, this being an old word for a type of hunting dog. The original docks located here were used for firewood importation and the phrase is linked to fire dogs, the dogs of a later king, Henry VIII, who also kept deer in Greenwich Park. Again it is thought that his hunting dogs might have kept in derelict farm buildings on the Island. Isle of Dykes, which then got corrupted over the years, the whole area was once simply known as Stepney Marsh, Anton van den Wyngaerdes Panorama of London dated 1543 depicts and refers to the Isle of Dogs. Records show that ships preparing to carry the English royal household to Calais in 1520 docked at the bank of the Island. The name Isle of Dogges occurs in the Thamesis Descriptio of 1588, the name is next applied to the Isle of Dogs Fam shown on a map of 1683. At the same time, the area was known as Isle of Dogs or the Blackwell levels. By 1855, it was incorporated within the parish of Poplar under the aegis of the Poplar Board of Works and this was incorporated into the Metropolitan Borough of Poplar on its formation in 1900. After the building of the Docks, and with an increasing population and this area includes Millwall, Cubitt Town, and Blackwall. The south of the isle opposite Greenwich was once known as North Greenwich, between 1986 and 1992 it enjoyed a brief formal existence, as the name Isle of Dogs was applied to one of seven neighbourhoods to which power was devolved from the council. It was the site of the highest concentration of housing in England but is now best known as the location of the Canary Wharf office complex. One Canada Square, also known as the Canary Wharf Tower, is the second tallest habitable building in Britain at 244 metres, the Isle of Dogs is situated some distance downriver from the City of London. The area was sparsely populated marshland before its drainage and planting in the 13th century. A catastrophic flood occurred in 1488, resulting in the returning to its previous marshy condition

34.
London Docklands
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For the specific dock known under that name, see London Docks. For the basketball team known as London Docklands, see London Towers. London Docklands is the name for an area in east and southeast London and it forms part of the boroughs of Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Lewisham, Newham and Greenwich. The docks were formerly part of the Port of London, at one time the worlds largest port and they have now been redeveloped principally for commercial and residential use. The name London Docklands was used for the first time in a government report on redevelopment plans in 1971 but has become virtually universally adopted. It also created conflict between the new and old communities of the London Docklands, in Roman and medieval times, ships tended to dock at small quays in the present-day city of London or Southwark, an area known as the Pool of London. However, this gave no protection against the elements, was vulnerable to thieves, the Howland Great Dock in Rotherhithe was designed to address these problems, providing a large, secure and sheltered anchorage with room for 120 large vessels. It was a commercial success and provided for two phases of expansion during the Georgian and Victorian eras. The first of the Georgian docks was the West India, followed by the London, the East India, the Surrey, the Regents Canal Dock, St Katharine, the Victorian docks were mostly further east, comprising the Royal Victoria, Millwall and Royal Albert. The King George V Dock was an addition in 1921. Three principal kinds of docks existed, wet docks were where ships were laid up at anchor and loaded or unloaded. Dry docks, which were far smaller, took individual ships for repairing, ships were built at dockyards along the riverside. In addition, the river was lined with warehouses, piers, jetties. The various docks tended to specialise in different forms of produce, the Surrey Docks concentrated on timber, for instance, Millwall took grain, St Katharine took wool, sugar and rubber, and so on. The docks required an army of workers, chiefly lightermen and quayside workers, some of the workers were highly skilled - the lightermen had their own livery company or guild, while the deal porters were famous for their acrobatic skills. Most were unskilled and worked as casual labourers and they assembled at certain points, such as pubs, each morning, where they were selected more or less at random by foremen. For these workers, it was effectively a lottery as to whether they would get work - and pay and this arrangement continued until as late as 1965, although it was somewhat regularised after the creation of the National Dock Labour Scheme in 1947. The main dockland areas were originally low-lying marshes, mostly unsuitable for agriculture, with the establishment of the docks, the dock workers formed a number of tight-knit local communities with their own distinctive cultures and slang

35.
Docklands Light Railway
–
The Docklands Light Railway is an automated light metro system opened in 1987 to serve the redeveloped Docklands area of London. It reaches north to Stratford, south to Lewisham, west to Tower Gateway and Bank in the City of London financial district, and east to Beckton, London City Airport and Woolwich Arsenal. The system uses minimal staffing on trains and at interchange stations. Similar proposals have made for the Tube. The DLR is operated under a franchise awarded by Transport for London to KeolisAmey Docklands and it was previously run for over 17 years by Serco Docklands, part of the Serco Group. The system is owned by Docklands Light Railway Ltd, part of the London Rail division of Transport for London, in Fiscal Year 2014, the DLR carried 110.2 million passengers. It has been extended several times and further extensions are under consideration, the docks immediately east of Central London began to decline in the early 1960s as cargo became containerised. They had been connected to the railway network via the London and Blackwall Railway. The opening of the Tilbury container docks, further east in Essex, finally rendered them redundant, as early as 1972, consideration was given to how to redevelop the moribund Docklands. Travis Morgan & Partners were commissioned by the London Docklands Study Team to consider the issue, the Greater London Council formed a Docklands Joint Committee with the Boroughs of Greenwich, Lewisham, Newham, Southwark and Tower Hamlets in 1974 to undertake the redevelopment of the area. A light railway system was envisaged, terminating either at Tower Hill tube station or at Fenchurch Street, but both options were seen as too expensive. This was intended to be the stage of the Fleet line – which had been renamed the Jubilee line. The government created the London Docklands Development Corporation in July 1981 to coordinate the redevelopment of the Docklands, the need to provide a cheap public transport solution led to it commissioning London Transport to evaluate a number of exclusively light rail options. The core of the route ran alongside the Great Eastern line out of London, three terminus options were proposed at the west end, at Tower Hill, Minories and Aldgate East. The Tower Hill option would have required a low-level interchange to be constructed alongside the existing Underground station, the Minories option, a high-level station virtually on the site of the old Minories railway station, was selected and became the current Tower Gateway DLR terminus. However, it became apparent that there was no capacity on the existing network for integrating the DLR into the Underground. Two southern terminus options were put forward, at Cubitt Town and Tiller Road, on the west side of Millwall Dock, with two possible routes to reach them. The central option required the West India Docks to be infilled or bridged and would run down the middle of the peninsula, the contract for the initial system was awarded to GEC Mowlem in 1984 and the system was constructed from 1985 to 1987 at a cost of £77 million

36.
Great Eastern Railway
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The Great Eastern Railway was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia. The company was grouped into the London and North Eastern Railway in 1923, the GER was formed in 1862 by amalgamation of the Eastern Counties Railway with a number of smaller railways. It also served an area, including Enfield, Chingford, Loughton. This suburban network was, in the early 20th century, the busiest steam-hauled commuter system in the world, the station was renamed Bishopsgate on 27 July 1847. The Great Eastern attempted to obtain a West End terminus, alongside the one in east London, via the Tottenham and Hampstead Junction Railway, a new London terminus at Liverpool Street was opened to traffic on 2 February 1874, and was completely operational from 1 November 1875. From this date the terminus at Bishopsgate closed to passengers. In 1922, a marble memorial was installed at Liverpool Street station commemorating GER staff who had answered the call of duty to fight. The memorial was unveiled by Sir Henry Wilson, who was assassinated by two Irish Republican Army gunmen on his way home from the unveiling ceremony. A smaller memorial to Wilson was later placed adjacent to the GER memorial, alongside one to Charles Fryatt, the Great Eastern Railway was made up of a number of constituent companies when it was formed in 1862. The most notable was the Eastern Counties Railway, which had taken over most of the companies by this time. The history and exact status of many of these railways is quite complex, in many cases the operation of the railway that built the line was taken over although the original railway company often existed in legal form after that date. This suggests that despite the fact some of these railway companies had been taken over by the Eastern Counties Railway prior to the 1862 Act. BTR - Bury St Edmunds and Thetford Railway - became part of the GER in 1878, the GER also provided staff, locomotives and rolling stock in return for 50% of the gross takings. Changed name to ESIR in 1878 ESIR - Ely and St Ives Railway - taken over by GER in 1898 E&NR - Ely, formed in 1875 and taken over by GER in 1898. The latter two operated what are now the Metropolitan, Circle, District and Hammersmith & City lines of the London Underground, the GER had two seats on the management committee which met twice per year and the GER members were supported by the Secretary and a solicitor. GNGEJR Great Northern and Great Eastern Joint Railway - a joint railway committee formed in 1879 and it consisted of five directors from each company, met every quarter and the GER members were supported by the Secretary, a solicitor, an engineer and the General Manager. The table below shows the dates of the railways that made up the Great Eastern. Other railways NLR - North London Railway GNR - Great Northern Railway Notes A - worked by NLR until 1866, then by GER one year and NLR the next until 1874 then GER and successors

37.
London and North Eastern Railway
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The London and North Eastern Railway was the second largest of the Big Four railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948, at that time, it was divided into the new British Railways Eastern Region, North Eastern Region, and partially the Scottish Region. Sir Ralph Wedgwood was the Chief Officer for its first 16 years, the North Eastern Railway had the largest route mileage,1,757 miles, the Hull and Barnsley Railway just 106.5 miles. The M&GNJR was incorporated into the LNER in 1936, in 1933, on the formation of the London Passenger Transport Board, the LNER acquired the remaining operations of the Metropolitan Railway Company. The LNER was the majority partner in the Cheshire Lines Committee, the LNER covered the area north and east of London. It included the East Coast Main Line from London to Edinburgh via York and Newcastle upon Tyne, most of the country east of the Pennines was within its purview, including East Anglia. The main workshops were in Doncaster, with others at Darlington, Inverurie and Stratford, the LNER inherited four of Londons termini, Fenchurch Street (ex-London and Blackwall Railway, Kings Cross, Liverpool Street, and Marylebone. In addition, it ran suburban services to Broad Street and Moorgate, on 13 February 1923, an express passenger train overran signals at Retford, Nottinghamshire and was in a rear-end collision with a freight train. On 23 December 1923, a passenger train overran signals and was in collision with a light engine at Belford. On 28 July 1924, a train overran signals and collided with another at Haymarket station, Edinburgh. On 12 May 1926, during the General Strike, a passenger train was deliberately derailed south of Cramlington. On 7 August 1926, a multiple unit overran signals and was in collision with a freight train at Manors station, Newcastle upon Tyne. The accident was caused by the tying down the controller with a handkerchief. When he leant out of the train he struck an overbridge and was killed, the train was able to continue moving until the collision. On 14 February 1927, two trains were in a head-on collision at Hull Paragon station, Yorkshire due to a signalmans error. Twelve people were killed and 24 were injured, on 27 February 1927, an express passenger train collided with a light engine at Penistone, Yorkshire due to a signalmans error. On 17 August 1928, a train collided with a lorry on a level crossing at Shepreth. On 27 June 1928, a train was in a head-on collision with a parcels train that was being shunted at Darlington

38.
Limehouse
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Limehouse is a district in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Located 3.9 miles east of Charing Cross, It is on the bank of the River Thames opposite Rotherhithe. The area gives its name to Limehouse Reach, a section of the Thames which runs south to Millwall after making a bend at Cuckolds Point. The west-to-east section upstream of Cuckolds Point is properly called the Lower Pool, the name relates to the local lime kilns or, more precisely, lime oasts, by the river and operated by the large potteries that served shipping in the London Docks. The name is from Old English līm-āst lime-oast, the earliest reference is to Les Lymhostes, in 1356. The name is used in 1417, Inquisicio capta sup litus Thomisie apud Lymhosteys pro morte Thome Frank. John Baille, Matthew Holme, Robert Marle, Henry Mark, Alexander Bryan, John Goby, Richard Hervy, Walter Steel, Peter West, Richard Stowell, John Dyse, Limehouse became a significant port in late medieval times, with extensive docks and wharves. Although most cargoes were discharged in the Pool of London before the establishment of the docks, industries such as shipbuilding, ship chandlering, Limehouse Basin opened in 1820 as the Regents Canal Dock. This was an important connection between the Thames and the system, where cargoes could be transferred from larger ships to the shallow-draught canal boats. This mix of vessels can still be seen in the Basin, from the Tudor era until the 20th century, ships crews were employed on a casual basis. Crews would be paid off at the end of their voyages and, inevitably, permanent communities of foreign sailors became established, including colonies of Lascars and Africans from the Guinea Coast. Large Chinese communities at both Limehouse and Shadwell developed, established by the crews of merchantmen in the opium and tea trades, the area achieved notoriety for opium dens in the late 19th century, often featured in pulp fiction works by Sax Rohmer and others. Like much of the East End it remained a focus for immigration, on 12 February 1832, the first case of cholera was reported in London at Limehouse. First described in India in 1817, it had spread here via Hamburg, although 800 people died during this epidemic, fewer than had died of tuberculosis in the same year, cholera visited again in 1848 and 1858. The use of Limehouse Basin as a distribution hub declined with the growth of the railways, although the revival of canal traffic during World War I. Today, Stepney Historical Trust works to advance the education in the history of the area. Limehouse Basin was amongst the first docks to close in the late 1960s, by 1981, Limehouse shared the docklands-wide physical, social and economic decline which led to the setting up of the London Docklands Development Corporation. In November 1982, the LDDC published its Limehouse Area Development Strategy and this built on existing plans for Limehouse Basin, and offered a discussion framework for future development, housing refurbishment and environmental improvements across the whole of Limehouse

39.
London and Greenwich Railway
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The London and Greenwich Railway was opened in London between 1836 and 1838. It was the first steam railway in the capital, the first to be specifically for passengers. The idea for the line came from Colonel George Thomas Landmann, until 1824 a Royal Engineer, and George Walter, and it would run from close to London Bridge, convenient for journeys to the City. It would be some 3 3⁄4 miles long, on a viaduct of 878 brick arches, some of them skew, Landmann planned to rent the arches out as workshops. The intention had been to descend to level after the Grand Surrey Canal. The first Act of Parliament was obtained in 1833 for a line from Tooley Street to London Street, the ultimate intention was to reach Dover and there was much talk of a London to Gravesend from Greenwich. A scheme was presented to Parliament in 1836 but five others were competing, the line ran parallel with Tooley Street, crossing Blue Anchor Road, Corbetts Lane and the Grand Surrey Canal. From there it curved towards the first station, at Deptford High Street, the subsoil was a blackish peat, which gave considerable problems, and Landmann pioneered the use of concrete to reinforce the foundations. Even so, several of the piers near to Corbetts Lane moved four or five inches out of the perpendicular, elsewhere, iron ties were used to prevent lateral spread in the brickwork. In 1840 many of the arches were improved by laying 9 inches of concrete above them, between Deptford and Greenwich the River Ravensbourne was crossed at Deptford Creek by a balanced bridge to allow masted vessels to pass. Eight men operated it, but possibly because of trouble with the foundations it was unreliable and it was replaced in 1884 and again in 1963. Originally the line had single parallel tracks of Stephenson gauge 4 ft 8 1⁄2 in, by 1840 there was a mixture of bridge rails, single parallel and double parallel rails. The original rails caused excessive noise, and damage to structure, Bridge rails were used on the viaduct between Deptford and Greenwich initially, laid on longitudinal timbers with cross sleepers at four-foot intervals. At this time, new double parallel rails of 78 lb. to the yard were laid for a quarter of mile at Deptford on timber sleepers, the concrete underlay was replaced with gravel ballast of 2 feet thickness. The first section, between Spa Road and Deptford, opened on 8 February 1836, demonstration trains had been running from mid-1835 including Corbets Road Temp Station. These were suspended for a while after a derailment in November, on the Whit Monday following the official opening, the line carried around 13,000 passengers. There was an accident on 7 March, when Daniel Holmes was run over. The line reached Bermondsey Street in October, and London Bridge on 14 December 1836, at the other end, the line reached a temporary station at Church Row in Greenwich on 24 December 1838, having been delayed by problems with the Deptford Creek lift bridge

40.
Act of Parliament
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Acts of Parliament, also called primary legislation, are statutes passed by a parliament. Act of the Oireachtas is an equivalent term used in the Republic of Ireland where the legislature is known by its Irish name. It is also comparable to an Act of Congress in the United States, a draft Act of Parliament is known as a bill. In territories with a Westminster system, most bills that have any possibility of becoming law are introduced into parliament by the government. This will usually happen following the publication of a paper, setting out the issues. A bill may also be introduced into parliament without formal government backing, in territories with a multicameral parliament, most bills may be first introduced in any chamber. However, certain types of legislation are required, either by convention or by law. For example, bills imposing a tax, or involving public expenditure, are introduced into the House of Commons in the United Kingdom, Canadas House of Commons, conversely, bills proposed by the Law Commission and consolidation bills traditionally start in the House of Lords. Once introduced, a bill must go through a number of stages before it can become law, in theory, this allows the bills provisions to be debated in detail, and for amendments to the original bill to also be introduced, debated, and agreed to. In bicameral parliaments, a bill that has been approved by the chamber into which it was introduced then sends the bill to the other chamber, broadly speaking, each chamber must separately agree to the same version of the bill. Finally, the bill receives assent, in most territories this is merely a formality. In some countries, such as in Spain and Portugal, the term for a bill differs depending on whether it is initiated by the government, again, the second reading of a Government bill is usually approved. A defeat for a Government bill on this reading signifies a major loss, if the bill is read a second time, it is then considered in detail Consideration in detail, This usually takes place on the floor of the House. Generally, committees sit on the floor of the House and consider the bill in detail, third reading, A debate on the final text of the bill, as amended. Very rarely do debates occur during this stage, passage, The bill is then sent to the other House, which may amend it. If the other House amends the bill, the bill and amendments are posted back to the original House for a further stage, the State of Queenslands Parliament is unicameral and skips this and the rest of the stages. Consideration of Senate/Representatives amendments, The House in which the bill originated considers the amendments made in the other House and it may agree to them, amend them, propose other amendments in lieu, or reject them. However, the Senate may not amend money bills, though it can request the House to make amendments, a bill may pass backwards and forwards several times at this stage, as each House amends or rejects changes proposed by the other

41.
William IV of the United Kingdom
–
William IV was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death. The third son of George III and younger brother and successor to George IV, he was the last king, William served in the Royal Navy in his youth and was, both during his reign and afterwards, nicknamed the Sailor King. He served in North America and the Caribbean, in 1789, he was created Duke of Clarence and St Andrews. Since his two brothers died without leaving legitimate issue, he inherited the throne when he was 64 years old. Although William did not engage in politics as much as his brother or his father, through his brother, the Viceroy of Hanover, he granted his German kingdom a short-lived liberal constitution. William was succeeded in the United Kingdom by his niece, Victoria, William was born in the early hours of the morning on 21 August 1765 at Buckingham House, the third child and son of King George III and Queen Charlotte. He had two brothers, George and Frederick, and was not expected to inherit the Crown. He was baptised in the Great Council Chamber of St Jamess Palace on 20 September 1765 and his godparents were his paternal uncles, the Duke of Gloucester and Prince Henry, and his paternal aunt, Princess Augusta, then hereditary duchess of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel. He spent most of his life in Richmond and at Kew Palace. At the age of thirteen, he joined the Royal Navy as a midshipman and his experiences in the navy seem to have been little different from those of other midshipmen, though in contrast to other sailors he was accompanied on board ships by a tutor. He did his share of the cooking and got arrested with his shipmates after a brawl in Gibraltar. He served in New York during the American War of Independence, I am fully persuaded, that it is unnecessary to caution you against offering insult or indignity to the persons of the Prince or Admiral. The plot did not come to fruition, the British heard of it and assigned guards to William and he became a lieutenant in 1785 and captain of HMS Pegasus the following year. The two were friends, and dined together almost nightly. At Nelsons wedding, William insisted on giving the bride away and he was given command of the frigate HMS Andromeda in 1788, and was promoted to rear-admiral in command of HMS Valiant the following year. William sought to be made a duke like his brothers, and to receive a similar parliamentary grant. To put pressure on him, William threatened to stand for the House of Commons for the constituency of Totnes in Devon, Williams political record was inconsistent and, like many politicians of the time, cannot be certainly ascribed to a single party. William ceased his active service in the Royal Navy in 1790, the following year he spoke in favour of the war, expecting a command after his change of heart, none came

42.
John Rennie the Younger
–
Sir John Rennie was the second son of engineer John Rennie, and brother of George Rennie. John Rennie was born at 27 Stamford Street, Blackfriars Road and he was educated by Dr. Greenlaw at Isleworth, and afterwards by Dr. Charles Burney at Greenwich. In 1815 he assisted his father in the erection of Southwark Bridge, Rennie along with Philip Richards designed Royal William Victualling Yard, Plymouth. Rennie also was responsible for designing Cannon Workshops, which following the strike by the coopers employed by the West India Dock Company. The company decided to reorganise the cooperage Department, and Rennie drew up the plans, the buildings were completed in 1825. The most important of John Rennies undertakings, from 1824, was the construction of London Bridge, the bridge was opened in 1831, when Rennie was knighted, being the first of the profession since Sir Hugh Myddleton to be thus distinguished. Many years of his life were spent in making additions and alterations to various harbours on different parts of the coast, one example would be his work in the 1850s designing a drydock for Joseph Wheeler at his Rushbrooke yard in Cork. He completed the works in the Lincolnshire fens commenced by his father. He also restored the harbour of Boston in 1827–8, and made improvements on the Welland. He also re-modernised the Chatham Dockyards in 1862, creating 3 huge basins and passageways. The company did supply a number of locomotives for the London and Croydon Railway in 1838 and 1839. Rennie was elected a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers on 25 June 1844 and his presidential address in 1846 was a complete history of the profession of civil engineering. He also contributed papers on the drainage of the level of Ancholme, Lincolnshire and he published, besides his Account of Plymouth Breakwater, the Theory, Formation, and Construction of British and Foreign Harbours. He was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. Rennie retired from the duties of his profession about 1862. He is buried in Kensal Green Cemetery in London on the edge of a spur path. The grave has a new plaque to compensate for the original worn slab and this article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain, Rennie, John

43.
City of London
–
The City of London is a city and county within London. It constituted most of London from its settlement by the Romans in the 1st century AD to the Middle Ages, the City is now only a tiny part of the metropolis of London, though it remains a notable part of central London. Administratively, it one of the 33 local authority districts of Greater London, however, the City of London is not a London borough. The City of London is widely referred to simply as the City and is colloquially known as the Square Mile. Both of these terms are often used as metonyms for the United Kingdoms trading and financial services industries. The name London is now used for a far wider area than just the City. London most often denotes the sprawling London metropolis, or the 32 London boroughs and this wider usage of London is documented as far back as 1888, when the County of London was created. The local authority for the City, namely the City of London Corporation, is unique in the UK and has some unusual responsibilities for a local council and it is also unusual in having responsibilities and ownerships beyond its boundaries. The Corporation is headed by the Lord Mayor of the City of London, the current Lord Mayor, as of November 2016, is Andrew Parmley. The City is a business and financial centre. Throughout the 19th century, the City was the primary business centre. London came top in the Worldwide Centres of Commerce Index, published in 2008, the insurance industry is focused around the eastern side of the City, around Lloyds building. A secondary financial district exists outside of the City, at Canary Wharf,2.5 miles to the east, the City has a resident population of about 7,000 but over 300,000 people commute to and work there, mainly in the financial services sector. It used to be held that Londinium was first established by merchants as a trading port on the tidal Thames in around 47 AD. However, this date is only supposition, many historians now believe London was founded some time before the Roman conquest of Britain in 43 AD. They base this notion on evidence provided by both archaeology and Welsh literary legend, archaeologists have claimed that as much as half of the best British Iron Age art and metalwork discovered in Britain has been found in the London area. One of the most prominent examples is the famously horned Waterloo Helmet dredged from the Thames in the early 1860s and now exhibited at the British Museum. Also, according to an ancient Welsh legend, a king named Lud son of Heli substantially enlarged and improved a pre-existing settlement at London which afterwards came to be renamed after him, the same tradition relates how this Lud son of Heli was later buried at Ludgate

Fenchurch Street railway station
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Fenchurch Street railway station, also known as London Fenchurch Street, is a central London railway terminus in the southeastern corner of the City of London. It takes its name from its proximity to Fenchurch Street, a key thoroughfare in the City, the station and all trains are operated by c2c. The station opened in 1841 to serve the L&BR and was

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Main entrance on Fenchurch Place

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The station during the 1948 Summer Olympics

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View westward towards the City end of the station, in May 1961

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Railway Clearing House diagram of the Fenchurch Street area, 1906

Minories railway station
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Minories was the western terminus of the London and Blackwall Railway, located on the east side of Minories, a short distance to the north-east of the Tower of London. The line was operated on a basis with a 400 hp pair of stationary steam engines winding a cable 7 miles long to which the trains were attached on the cable car principle. It opened o

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Minories railway station, circa 1840

London Docks
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The London Docks were one of several sets of docks in the historic Port of London. They were constructed in Wapping downstream from the City of London between 1799 and 1815, at a cost exceeding £5½ million, traditionally ships had docked at wharves on the River Thames, but by this time, more capacity was needed. They were the closest docks to the C

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A map of the London Docks in 1831.

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A birdseye view dated 1845.

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At the London Dock in the 1820s, the Customs employed around 250 men and the Excise around 200.

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Port wine from Oporto being unloaded on a London Docks quayside, circa 1909.

Shadwell railway station
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The station is between Whitechapel to the north and Wapping to the south. It is located near to Shadwell DLR station, the station is in Travelcard Zone 2. The Overground platforms are decorated with panels designed by Sarah McMenemy in 1995. The original station was one of the oldest on the network, first opened by the East London Railway on 10 Apr

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Shadwell

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Closed stations

East London Railway
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The East London Line is part of the London Overground, running north to south through the East End, Docklands and South areas of London. It was previously a line of the London Underground, built in 1869 by the East London Railway Company, which reused the Thames Tunnel intended for horse-drawn carriages, the line became part of the London Undergrou

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Class 378 train at Hoxton, with the City of London skyline in background

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Map of the East London Railway in 1915

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Wapping station on the East London line, built into the original northern entrance shaft of the Thames Tunnel. The station was rebuilt in the early 1980s.

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The link to Liverpool Street, 1991

Shadwell & St. George's East railway station
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Shadwell was a railway station in the parish of St. George in the East, London, that was opened by the Commercial Railway. It was situated 50 yards to the east of the current Shadwell DLR station on the Docklands Light Railway, the former station was between Cannon Street Road and Stepney, and was 1 mile 5 chains down-line from Fenchurch Street. Sh

Limehouse station
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Limehouse is a National Rail and connected Docklands Light Railway interchange station in Limehouse in Greater London, England. The station is situated in the East End of London and served by services operated by c2c to and from Fenchurch Street. On the main line, Limehouse is located 1 mile 55 chains down-line from Fenchurch Street, the station wa

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The Docklands Light Railway platforms at Limehouse, 2013

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Inside Limehouse station

Regent's Canal
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Regents Canal is a canal across an area just north of central London, England. It provides a link from the Paddington Arm of the Grand Union Canal, just north-west of Paddington Basin in the west, to the Limehouse Basin, the canal is 13.8 kilometres long. As with many Nash projects, the design was passed to one of his assistants, in this case James

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Regent's Canal, West portal of the Islington tunnel

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The entrance to the Regent's Canal at Limehouse, 1823.

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Wenlock Basin, Islington (2004)

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Commercial Road Lock on Regent's Canal where it meets the Limehouse Basin

Burdett Road railway station
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Burdett Road is a disused railway station located in Bow Common, east London. It was opened in 1871 by the Great Eastern Railway and closed in 1941, the line at this point was on a viaduct and with little available space at street-level the entrance to the station was incorporated within the structure of the viaduct. The buildings on the two platfo

London, Tilbury & Southend Railway
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The line is also heavily used by leisure travellers, as it and its branches serve a number of seaside resorts, shopping areas and countryside destinations. Additionally the route provides an artery for traffic to and from the port of Tilbury. The route was extended in phases and partnerships were formed with the Midland Railway, the main line runs

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Class 357 unit between Barking and Upminster.

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'LTSR' canopy support at East Ham (no longer served)

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LMS 3-cylinder 2-6-4T No. 2500 built specifically for the LTSR section at National Railway Museum, York in 2003

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Modern c2c Electrostar train on LT&SR route

District Railway
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The Metropolitan District Railway was a passenger railway that served London from 1868 to 1933. Established in 1864 to complete the circle, an underground railway in London. The Metropolitan Railway operated all services until the District introduced its own trains in 1871, the railway was soon extended westwards through Earls Court to Fulham, Rich

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Part of a UERL poster from 1914 shows the underground District Railway Embankment station under the South Eastern and Chatham Railway 's Charing Cross terminus

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The jointly owned experimental passenger train that ran for six months in 1900

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Originally built with four chimneys, Lots Road Power Station provided electricity for all of the UERL's lines

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The joint UNDERGROUND map published in 1908. The District Railway is shown in green.

Limehouse railway station (1840-1926)
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Limehouse was a railway station in Limehouse, London, on the London and Blackwall Railway. It opened in July 1840 and was located at the junction of Bate Street and Three Colt Street and it closed in May 1926, however the line continued to carry freight to the Isle of Dogs until the 1960s. The platforms at Limehouse were demolished soon after closu

Bow Road railway station
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Bow Road is a closed railway station in Bow, east London, that was opened in 1876 on the Bow Curve branch line by the Great Eastern Railway. The station building was situated slightly west of a former North London Railway station called Bow and near the current Bow Road Underground station, Bow Road station was re-sited in 1892 to a site 3 miles 7

West India Docks railway station
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West India Docks was a railway station in Limehouse, east London, that was opened by the Commercial Railway in 1840. It was situated between Limehouse and Millwall Junction stations,2 miles 35 chains down-line from Fenchurch Street, West India Docks station opened on 6 July 1840. It was closed to service on 3 May 1926, along with the rest of the LB

Great Eastern Main Line
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Its numerous branches also connect the main line to such destinations as Braintree, Harwich, Southminster, and Sudbury. The line is heavily used by leisure travellers, as it and its branches serve a number of seaside resorts, shopping areas. The route also provides the main artery for freight traffic to and from Felixstowe and Harwich. The London t

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A Class 360 train at Marks Tey

Liverpool Street station
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The station opened in 1874 as a replacement for Bishopsgate station as the Great Eastern Railways main London terminus. By 1895 it had the largest number of platforms on any railway station in London. During the First World War, an air raid on the station in 1917 led to 162 deaths, in the build-up to the Second World War, the station served as the

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Main station concourse

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Plan of Liverpool Street and Broad Street (c.1888)

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Liverpool Street station, west elevation (1896)

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Original trainshed cross-section (1875)

Millwall Junction railway station
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Millwall Junction was a railway station in Poplar, east London, on the London and Blackwall Railway. Despite the name, it was not in Millwall, but rather it marked where the LBR southern branch to Millwall and North Greenwich, which served the West India Docks, branched off the main line. It was between West India Docks station and Poplar station,2

Norwich railway station
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Norwich railway station is the eastern terminus of the Great Eastern Main Line in the East of England, serving the city of Norwich, Norfolk. It is 114 miles 77 chains down the line from the western terminus. It is also the terminus of several lines, the Breckland Line to Cambridge, the Bittern Line to Cromer and Sheringham. East Midlands Trains als

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Norwich railway station in 2008

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Norwich Thorpe in 1851, before its rebuilding in 1886.

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LNER Thompson B1 4-6-0 in 1958

Port of London Authority
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The Port of London Authority is a self-funding public trust established by The Port of London Act 1908 to govern the Port of London. Its responsibility extends over the Tideway of the River Thames and its continuation and it maintains and supervises navigation, and protects the rivers environment. The PLA originally operated all enclosed dock syste

West India Docks
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The West India Docks are a series of three docks on the Isle of Dogs in London, England the first of which opened in 1802. The docks closed to traffic in 1980 and the Canary Wharf development was built on the site. Robert Milligan was largely responsible for the construction of the West India Docks, Milligan was a wealthy West Indies merchant and s

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An 1802 painting of the completed docks. The canal to the left of the painting was later closed and became a third dock. The view is looking west towards the City of London.

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West India Docks by Augustus Pugin and Thomas Rowlandson (figures) from Rudolph Ackermann 's Microcosm of London, or, London in Miniature (1808-11).

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Map of the Isle of Dogs showing the docks from The Pocket Atlas and Guide to London, 1899

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The Spanish air defence frigate Méndez Núñez moored at South Dock in 2015

Poplar Dock
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Poplar Dock is a small dock in east London. It connects to the Blackwall Basin of the West India Docks and, the dock was built by the East & West India Docks and Birmingham Junction Railway Company and connected to the companys goods yard at Chalk Farm. It was alone among the docks to remain outside the control of the Port of London Authority in 19

1.
A view of Poplar Dock from Landons Close

Great Western Railway
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The Great Western Railway was a British railway company that linked London with the south-west and west of England, the Midlands, and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835, Goods wagons were painted red but this was later changed to mid-grey. Great Western trains included long-distance expr

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The interior of Brunel's train-shed at Temple Meads, the first Bristol terminus of the GWR, from an engraving by J. C. Bourne.

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Coat-of-arms of the Great Western Railway, incorporating the shields, crests and mottoes of the cities of London (left) and Bristol (right)

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The Sonning Cutting in 1846

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Route of the Great Western Railway on Cheffin's Map, 1850

Great Northern Railway (Great Britain)
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The Great Northern Railway was a British railway company established by the Great Northern Railway Act of 1846. On 1 January 1923 the company lost its identity, as a constituent of the newly formed London, the main line became part of the East Coast Main Line. In the summer of 1835, the engineer, Joseph Gibbs projected a line which was to run from

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Great Northern Railway Stirling "Single" 4-2-2 express locomotive at Peterborough North railway station. At their introduction in 1876, these were the fastest steam locomotives in the world.

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The Bennerley Viaduct on the Awsworth Junction to Derby Branch in 2006

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The former GNR works at Boston, Lincolnshire

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GNR designed stock built under the LNER in 1924

Poplar railway station
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It was closed in 1926, at which time it was owned by the London and North Eastern Railway. The station was opened on 6 July 1840 on the west side of Brunswick Street, to the north of the Blackwall Yard shipyard and it remained open until 4 May 1926, when all passenger services on the line east of Stepney ceased. During its life there was another st

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Poplar railway station in 1962

South Dock railway station
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South Dock was a railway station on the Isle of Dogs in east London. The station was on the side of the South Dock of the West India Docks. It had a platform as it was the only passing loop on the branch. The station buildings were of timber with a slate roof, station was staffed entirely by dock employees, company issued its own tickets. The stati

East India Docks
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The East India Docks were a group of docks in Blackwall, east London, north-east of the Isle of Dogs. Today only the basin and listed perimeter wall remain visible. Following the successful creation of the West India Docks which opened in 1802, joseph Cotton was chairman of the Dock Company from 1803. The docks, designed by engineer Ralph Walker, w

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Union-Castle liners in East India Docks in 1902

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East India dock looking south towards the River Thames, 1806. The original Brunswick dock and mast house can be seen alongside the river.

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Brunswick Wharf Power Station, 1974

4.
Brunswick Dock, which became the Export Dock

Millwall Docks
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Millwall Dock is a dock at Millwall, London, England, located south of Canary Wharf on the Isle of Dogs. The Millwall Dock was constructed by John Aird & Co. to a design by Sir John Fowler, the dock is L-shaped, with an Outer Dock running east-west, and an Inner Dock running north from the eastern end. It originally contained around 36 acres of wat

1.
Disused timber footbridge at the entrance to the old dry dock at Clipper Quay, with an engine and a customs furnace in the background

Blackwall railway station
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Blackwall was a railway station in Blackwall, London, that served as the eastern terminus of the Commercial Railway. It was located on the side of the East India Docks. The station was designed by architect William Tite in an ornate Italinaite style and it opened on 6 July 1840 with services connecting with a ferry service to Gravesend, Kent. In Ma

1.
Newspaper image from an article on the opening of the railway

London
–
London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city

1.
Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace and Central London skyline

4.
The name London may derive from the River Thames

Minories
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Minories is the name of a former civil parish, also known as Minories Holy Trinity, and a street in the City of London, close to the Tower of London. Minories name is derived from the former Abbey of the Minoresses of St Mary of the Order of St Clare, a minoress was a nun in the Second Order of the Order of Friars Minor known as Franciscans. A smal

1.
Minories, the street, pictured in 2010.

Blackwall, London
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While mostly residential, Blackwall Yard here provides moorings for vessels and significant roads cover the short riverside outside bend which defines the area. The small district by Blackwall Stairs was known as Blackwall by at least the 14th century and this presumably derives from the colour of the river wall, constructed in the Middle Ages. The

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This house at Blackwall, once owned by Sir Walter Raleigh, was demolished during construction of the Blackwall Tunnel.

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St Lawrence Cottages, a rare survivor of the old Blackwall. This shot (February 2006) faces west, and in the background is the old dock wall, beyond that the buildings around Canary Wharf.

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East India Dock Basin with a passing Docklands Light Railway train in the background in September 2012.

Stepney
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Stepney is a district of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets in Londons East End that grew out of a medieval village around St Dunstans church and the 15th century ribbon development of Mile End Road. The area built up rapidly in the 19th century, mainly to immigrant workers and displaced London poor. Some Georgian architecture and Victorian era te

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Winterton House, a typical Stepney tower block

2.
Stepney Green tube station

Isle of Dogs
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The Isle of Dogs is an area in the East End of London that is bounded on three sides by one of the largest meanders in the River Thames. The soil is alluvial and silty in nature, underlaid by clay or mud, the first known written mention of the Isle of Dogs is in the ‘Letters & Papers of Henry VIII’. Some say it is a corruption of the Isle of Ducks,

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Isle of Dogs as shown in John Rocque 's map of London, 1747 showing the area before development

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Aerial view the Isle of Dogs in 2015. The O2 Arena can be seen on the Greenwich Peninsula to the right (east) of the Isle of Dogs.

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1899 The Isle of Dogs, at the height of its commercial success

London Docklands
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For the specific dock known under that name, see London Docks. For the basketball team known as London Docklands, see London Towers. London Docklands is the name for an area in east and southeast London and it forms part of the boroughs of Southwark, Tower Hamlets, Lewisham, Newham and Greenwich. The docks were formerly part of the Port of London,

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The O2 and Canary Wharf from the Royal Victoria Dock.

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The London docks in 1882. The King George V Dock had not yet been built.

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Museum of London Docklands, near Canary Wharf

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Canary Wharf at sunset

Docklands Light Railway
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The Docklands Light Railway is an automated light metro system opened in 1987 to serve the redeveloped Docklands area of London. It reaches north to Stratford, south to Lewisham, west to Tower Gateway and Bank in the City of London financial district, and east to Beckton, London City Airport and Woolwich Arsenal. The system uses minimal staffing on

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Older train B92

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Docklands Light Railway

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Newer train B2007

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Tower Gateway station was the DLR's original link to central London.

Great Eastern Railway
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The Great Eastern Railway was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia. The company was grouped into the London and North Eastern Railway in 1923, the GER was formed in 1862 by amalgamation of the Eastern Counties Railway with a number of smaller

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Great Eastern Railway

2.
Memorial at Liverpool Street station to GER staff who died during World War I, unveiled in 1922 by Sir Henry Wilson, who was assassinated by Irish Republican Army gunmen on his way home from the unveiling ceremony.

London and North Eastern Railway
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The London and North Eastern Railway was the second largest of the Big Four railway companies created by the Railways Act 1921 in Britain. It operated from 1 January 1923 until nationalisation on 1 January 1948, at that time, it was divided into the new British Railways Eastern Region, North Eastern Region, and partially the Scottish Region. Sir Ra

1.
London and North Eastern Railway

2.
Timetable for Autumn 1926 detailing the resumption of services after the General Strike

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The most famous of the A1/A3 Class locomotives, A3 4472 Flying Scotsman

Limehouse
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Limehouse is a district in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. Located 3.9 miles east of Charing Cross, It is on the bank of the River Thames opposite Rotherhithe. The area gives its name to Limehouse Reach, a section of the Thames which runs south to Millwall after making a bend at Cuckolds Point. The west-to-east section

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Limehouse Town Hall on Commercial Road, built in 1878 for the Limehouse District

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John Boydell 's view of the riverside at Limehouse in 1751 shows respectable houses and shipyards crowding onto the riverfront

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Limehouse Reach seen from above Limehouse Marina, with Ropemakers' Fields in the foreground.

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A statue of Clement Attlee, mayor of Stepney (1919) and MP for Limehouse stands outside the former Limehouse Library.

London and Greenwich Railway
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The London and Greenwich Railway was opened in London between 1836 and 1838. It was the first steam railway in the capital, the first to be specifically for passengers. The idea for the line came from Colonel George Thomas Landmann, until 1824 a Royal Engineer, and George Walter, and it would run from close to London Bridge, convenient for journeys

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Railways in South-east London in 1840

2.
Railways in the South East of England in 1840

3.
Greenwich station

Act of Parliament
–
Acts of Parliament, also called primary legislation, are statutes passed by a parliament. Act of the Oireachtas is an equivalent term used in the Republic of Ireland where the legislature is known by its Irish name. It is also comparable to an Act of Congress in the United States, a draft Act of Parliament is known as a bill. In territories with a

1.
A graphic representation of the legislative procedure in the United Kingdom.

William IV of the United Kingdom
–
William IV was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and King of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death. The third son of George III and younger brother and successor to George IV, he was the last king, William served in the Royal Navy in his youth and was, both during his reign and afterwards, nicknamed the Sailor King. He ser

4.
Mrs. Jordan in the Character of Hypolita, mezzotint by John Jones of London, 1791, after a painting by John Hoppner

John Rennie the Younger
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Sir John Rennie was the second son of engineer John Rennie, and brother of George Rennie. John Rennie was born at 27 Stamford Street, Blackfriars Road and he was educated by Dr. Greenlaw at Isleworth, and afterwards by Dr. Charles Burney at Greenwich. In 1815 he assisted his father in the erection of Southwark Bridge, Rennie along with Philip Richa

1.
John Rennie the Younger

2.
Royal William Victualling Yard, Stonehouse, 1825–33.

3.
John Rennie's grave, Kensal Green Cemetery

City of London
–
The City of London is a city and county within London. It constituted most of London from its settlement by the Romans in the 1st century AD to the Middle Ages, the City is now only a tiny part of the metropolis of London, though it remains a notable part of central London. Administratively, it one of the 33 local authority districts of Greater Lon

1.
The City of London skyline in December 2013

2.
The Waterloo Helmet, c. 150–50 BC, found in the River Thames

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A surviving fragment of the London Wall, built around 200 AD, close to Tower Hill

4.
Plaque near Southwark Bridge noting the activities around the time of King Alfred.